The Datafile PD-CD 5/DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso/internet/starterpck/!TCPIPUser/NNTP/Docs/FAQs/Demon/WWW_TxT

Text File | 1995-04-08 | 7.5 KB | 203 lines

DEMON INTERNET LIMITED
======================
42 Hendon Lane
Finchley
London
N3 1TT
0181-349 0063  (London)
0131-552 0344  (Edinburgh)
0181-343 3881  (HelpLine)
email [e-mail]

WWW.TXT - DEMON INTERNET WWW Server and Services
Last updated 14th October 1994

The latest version of this document is available from
ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/doc/WWW.txt


Contents
========

1. Overview
2. Pricing
3. An Introduction to the HyperText/Media, WWW and Mosaic.


1. Overview
===========

Demon Internet provides WWW (World Wide Web) services for Internet
users and companies that want to make information available via this
medium.  This document, as well as giving some background to WWW, is
mainly designed to tell you about our services.  It does not tell you
how to set up software for your computer.  Access to the WWW is free
for everyone who has an Internet account except for a few chargeable
services that you may come across.

WWW is designed to make the retrieval of information easier and more
flexible than is currently possible.  It allows FTP, GOPHER, TELNET,
EMAIL, NEWS etc.  to be used from within it.  Most WWW browsers (e.g.
Mosaic and Cello) are graphical thus information is normally displayed
as text but with graphics mixed in.  More information follows at the foot
of this document.

The services on offer range from simple WWW server space to a complete
design and build service for both CD-ROMS and WWW servers.

The services that can be built range from simple textual information on a
WWW page to complex catalogue CD-Roms with  ordering and updates done over
the internet using Mosaic. In the non-commercial world we are currently
developing the eCity and eCity Cafe in collaboration with the Artec and
the ICA in London, showing the wide diversity of applications these new
tools can encompass.


2. Pricing
==========

Server space: Setup   #50
  Up to  5 Megabytes #25 per month.
  Up to 10 Megabytes #50 per month.
  Up to 25 Megabytes #75 per month.
  mail [e-mail] for larger capacities

For Design and Build services, time is charged at #500 per day, plus VAT.
There is a substantial discount for contracted work.

We will probably be allowing one page free of charge per Demon site
and this will be announced via demon.announce when it is available.


To arrange server space or consultancy mail [e-mail] or call
Grahame Davies on 0181-349 0063.




3. An Introduction to the HyperText/Media, WWW and Mosaic.
==========================================================

In a nutshell: there are today 10 terabytes of information available
publicly on the Internet computer network. That's probably about 10,000
times more data than would fit on your hard disk. NCSA Mosaic allows you to
tap into this information with, for most part, a point and a click.


What is hypertext?
==================

Reading a book is typically a sequential activity. Except for occasional
cross references (e.g. ``For more information on ziggledebee, see Chapter
3''), an erstwhile trip to the index and perhaps a peek at the last page to
see if it really was the butler who did it, reading is usually turning one
page after the next.

Hypertext (and its more encompassing cousin, hypermedia) organizes
information not as a linear chain, but as an interconnected web of
associations.


The World Wide Web
==================

The World Wide Web is a hypermedia system originated by CERN, a high energy
physics laboratory in Switzerland. Initially envisioned as a means of
easily sharing papers and data between physicists, the Web has evolved far
beyond its original intent and now includes such diverse information as
Gaelic texts, art exhibits, movie clips, and electronic magazines.


NCSA Mosaic
===========

NCSA Mosaic, developed at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a
network information browser (more technically, a World Wide Web client)
that allows you to retrieve documents from the World Wide Web system.

In general terms, NCSA Mosaic is similar to Apple's Hypercard program,
except that instead of traversing information within a single document,
you're exploring the entire Internet. The online documents can contain not
only text, but also images, sounds and animations.


Why use Mosaic?
===============

Mosaic is an Internet-based global hypermedia  browser that allows you to
discover, retrieve, and display documents and data from all over the
Internet.

Mosaic is part of the World Wide Web project, a distributed hypermedia
environment originated at CERN and collaborated upon by a large, informal,
and international design and development team.

Mosaic helps you explore a huge and rapidly expanding universe of
information and gives you powerful new capabilities for interacting with
information.

What is global hypermedia?
==========================

Global hypermedia means that information located around the world is
interconnected in an environment that allows you to travel through the
information by clicking on hyperlinks  -- terms, icons, or images in
documents that point to other, related documents. Any hyperlink can point
to any document anywhere on the Internet.

Using Mosiac enables your end user to be platform independent: Windows,
X-Windows, Macintosh and Amiga all currently have a version of Mosaic
available. It can retrieve its files from CDROM, Hard Drive, or a remote
computer on the internet, it does this by using URLs, Universal Resource
Locators, a way of specifying where a file or document is whether it is on
the internet or your local hard drive.

Why Demon Internet for server space.
====================================

Demon Internet is one of the three leading internet providers in the UK,
with over 6,000 UK customers, peering arrangements to the other commercial
UK providers and their own wide band connection and back up routing to
the United States. This results in excellent connectivity for any
prospective client wishing to make information available on the Internet
for both UK and Worldwide distribution of information. Coupled with Demon's
24hr network monitoring to ensure that both machines and network
connections are available to our customers and their intended audience or
marketplace.


The Mechanics of Having Web Space
=================================

You can choose a name for the top level of your Web space and so your link
could be:

http://www.demon.co.uk/yourname/

People referring to this page will pick up your first page which should
be called:

index.html

We run our server on a Sun Unix system which is case sensitive and expects
the extension of your files to .html and not .htm.  DOS/Windows users
should take care to ensure they use lower case references and/or ensure
that case is correct in other references.  For Web space only Customers,
you are required to provide your files in a ready to go format.  Of course
you may experience difficulty in the first instance and we will assist.
Beyond the first successful installation we cannot undertake to manipulate
your files though.  We have scripts available to us to assist in those
areas that you may have problems.

You can update your server space when you see fit but will not have direct
ftp or telnet access to it.  Uploads should be placed in /incoming on
ftp.demon.co.uk and you should mail [e-mail].  The files will be
put in place within a few working hours.  For those who require a maximum
on this then it is 2 working days following the day of receipt of your
message although we will aim to be faster.

There are various security reasons for this and we will endeavour to make
the implementation of your changes as smooth, quick and pain free as possible.