TELENET SITES AGRICULTURE PENPages, run by Pennsylvania State University's College of Agricultural Sciences, provides weekly world weather and crop reports from the the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These reports detail everything from the effect of the weather on palm trees in Malaysia to the state of the Ukrainian wheat crop. Reports from Pennsylvania country extension officers offer tips for improving farm life. One database lists Pennsylvania hay distributors by county -- and rates the quality of their hay! The service lets you search for information two different ways. A menu system gives you quick access to reports that change frequently, such as the weekly crop/weather reports. An index system lets you search through several thousand online documents by keyword. At the main menu, you can either browse through an online manual or chose "PENPages,'' which puts you into the agriculture system. Telnet: psupen.psu.edu User name: PNOTPA California State University's Advanced Technology Information Network provides similar information as PENPages, only focusing on California crops. It also maintains lists of upcoming California trade shows and carries updates on biotechnology. Telnet: caticsuf.cati.csufresno.edu Log in: public You will then be asked to register and will be given a user name and password. Hit "a'' at the main menu for agricultural information. Hit "d'' to call up a menu that includes a biweekly biotechnology report. AIDS The University of Miami maintains a database of AIDS health providers in southern Florida. Telnet: callcat.med.miami.edu Log in: library At the main menu, select P (for "AIDS providers" and you'll be able to search for doctors, hospitals and other providers that care for patients with AIDS. You can also search by speciality. See also under Health and Conversation. AMATEUR RADIO: The National Ham Radio Call-Sign Callbook lets you search for American amateur operators by callsign, city, last name or Zip code. A successful search will give you the ham's name, address, callsign, age, type of license and when they got it. Telnet: callsign.buffalo.edu 2000 or ham.njit.edu 2000. When you connect, you tell the system how you want to search and what you're looking for. For example, if you want to search for hams by city, you would type city city name and hit enter (for example: city Kankakee). Other search choices are "call" (after which you would type a ham's name), "name," and "zip" (which you would follow with a Zip code). Be careful when searching for hams in a large city; there doesn't seem to be anyway to shut off the list once it starts except by using control-]. Otherwise, when done, type quit and hit enter to disconnect. ANIMALS See under Health. ART The National Gallery of Art in Washington maintains a database of its holdings, which you can search by artist (Van Gogh, for example) or medium (watercolor, say). You can see when specific paintings were completed, what medium they are in, how large they are and who donated it to the gallery. Telnet: ursus.maine.edu Login: ursus At the main menu, hit your b key and then 4 to connect to the gallery database. CALCULATORS Hewlett-Packard maintains a free service on which you can seek advice about their line of calculators. Telnet: hpcvbbs.cv.hp.com No log-in is needed. CONGRESS The Library of Congress Information Service lets you search current and past legislation (dating to 1982). Telnet: locis.loc.gov Password: none needed. When you connect, you'll get a main menu that lets you select from several databases, including the Library of Congress card catalog (with book entries dating to 1978) and a database of information on copyright laws. For the congressional database, select the number next to its entry and hit enter. You'll then be asekd to choose which legislative year to search. After that, a menu similar to this will come up: ***C103- THE LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION FILE FOR THE 103RD CONGRESS, which was updated on 05/10/93 and contains 4,044 records, is now available for your search. CURRENCY: All information is NOT current through the above date, which is machine generated when ANY information is added to the file. Bill numbers, official titles, sponsors, and status (STEP) added within 48 hours. Indexing terms and digests added later, in some cases several weeks after the bill is added to the file. TO START RETRIEVE to find: EXAMPLES: SEARCH: member name --------------> retrieve rep gingrich retrieve sen kennedy bill number --------------> retrieve h.r. 1 subject keywords ---------> retrieve day care FOR HELP: Type the word HELP and press the ENTER key. READY FOR NEW COMMAND: CONVERSATION Communications Canada, a Canadian government agency is developing Conversational Hypertext Access Technology (CHAT) is a system being developed by Communications Canada to provide easy database access to people with little or no computer experience, using what are known as hypertext links. Instead of cryptic computer commands, users type questions in English. Telnet: debra.doc.ca Log in: chat You chose one of the three databases now online, one on AIDS, and then ask questions in English. Ask the AIDS database, "When was AIDS first discovered?'' and it answers: "The first case of AIDS in North America was diagnosed in 1979. Before that, it existed in Africa, probably beginning in the 1950's. AIDS was discovered in North America when a number of young men with a history of homosexuality developed a rare type of cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma.'' Sometimes, you do have to rephrase your question. For example, when asked "What is the link between AIDS and drug use?'' the computer responds: "I know two things about drugs: the drugs that are used to treat people with AIDS, and the risks that drug users have in getting AIDS. Please ask about treatments or drug users.'' COPYRIGHT LAW See under Congress. CURRENT EVENTS Every year, the CIA publishes a Fact Book that is essentially an almanac of all the world's countries and international organizations, including such information as major products, type of government and names of its leaders. It's available for searching through the University of Maryland Info Database. Telnet: info.umd.edu User name: info Chose a terminal type and hit enter (or just hit enter if you are using VT100). At the main menu, choose the number next to "Government" and hit enter. One of your options will then be for "Factbook." Chose that one, and you can then search by country or agency. DICTIONARY Rutgers University's Campus-Wide Information Service has an online dictionary, thesaurus and database of familiar quotations, as well as online copies of the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon and the U.S. Constitution. Telnet: info.rutgers.edu. No log-in name is needed. At the main menu, type reference and hit enter. You'll see a menu like this: Online reference material Menu Commands... Command Purpose ------- ------- Dictionary Concise Oxford Dictionary, 8th Ed. Thesaurus Oxford Thesaurus Familiar Oxford Dictionary of Familiar Quotations (and Modern Q.) World CIA World Factbook US US government: Constitution, etc. Religion Bible, Book of Mormon, Koran For more information you may look under Libraries in the main menu Previous Return to previous menu Find Search for information Source Age and provider of information. Where to go for more. Quit Go back to main menu Online reference material Menu> To access any of them, type its name (dictionary, for example) and hit enter. You'll then be asked for the word to look for. If, instead, you type religion and hit enter, you'll be able to search for a word or passage from the Bible, the Koran or the Book of Mormon. ENVIRONMENT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains online databases of materials related to hazardous waste, the Clean Lakes program and cleanup efforts in New England. The agency plans to eventually include cleanup work in other regions, as well. The database is actually a computerized card catalog of EPA documents -- you can look the documents up, but you'll still have to visit your regional EPA office to see them. Telnet: epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov No password or user name is needed. At the main menu, type public and hit enter (there are other listed choices, but they are only for use by EPA employees). You'll then see a one-line menu. Type ols and hit enter, and you'll see something like this: NET-106 Logon to TSO04 in progress. DATABASES: N NATIONAL CATALOG CH CHEMICAL COLL. SYSTEM H HAZARDOUS WASTE 1 REGION I L CLEAN LAKES OTHER OPTIONS: ? HELP Q QUIT ENTER SELECTION --> Choose one and you'll get a menu that lets you search by document title, keyword, year of publication or corporation. After you enter the search word and hit enter, you'll be told how many matches were found. Hit 1 and then enter to see a list of the entries. To view the bibliographic record for a specifice entry, hit V and enter and then type the number of the record. The University of Michigan maintains a database of newspaper and magazine articles related to the environment, with the emphasis on Michigan, dating back to 1980. Telnet: hermes.merit.edu Host: mirlyn Log in: meem GEOGRAPHY The University of Michigan Geographic Name Server can provide basic information, such as population, latitude and longitude of U.S. cities and many mountains, rivers and other geographic features. Telnet: martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000 No password or user name is needed. Type in the name of a city, a Zip code or a geographic feature (Mt. McKinley, for example) and hit enter. By typing in a town's name or zip code, you can find out a community's county, Zip code and longitude and latitude. Not all geographic features are yet included in the database. GOVERNMENT See under Dictionary and Current Events. HEALTH The U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration runs a database of health- related information. Telnet: fdabbs.fda.gov Log in: bbs You'll then be asked for your name and a password you want to use in the future. After that, type topics and hit enter. You'll see this: TOPICS DESCRIPTION * NEWS News releases * ENFORCE Enforcement Report * APPROVALS Drug and Device Product Approvals list * CDRH Centers for Devices and Radiological Health Bulletins * BULLETIN Text from Drug Bulletin * AIDS Current Information on AIDS * CONSUMER FDA Consumer magazine index and selected articles * SUBJ-REG FDA Federal Register Summaries by Subject * ANSWERS Summaries of FDA information * INDEX Index of News Releases and Answers * DATE-REG FDA Federal Register Summaries by Publication Date * CONGRESS Text of Testimony at FDA Congressional Hearings * SPEECH Speeches Given by FDA Commissioner and Deputy * VETNEWS Veterinary Medicine News * MEETINGS Upcoming FDA Meetings * IMPORT Import Alerts * MANUAL On-Line User's Manual You'll be able to search these topics by key word or chronologically. It's probably a good idea, however, to capture a copy of the manual, first, because the way searching works on the system is a little odd. To capture a copy, type manual and hit enter. Then type scan and hit enter. You'll see this: FOR LIST OF AVAILABLE TOPICS TYPE TOPICS OR ENTER THE TOPIC YOU DESIRE ==> MANUAL BBSUSER 08-OCT-91 1 BBS User Manual At this point, turn on your own computer's screen-capture or logging function and hit your 1 key and then enter. The manual will begin to scroll on your screen, pausing every 24 lines. HIRING AND COLLEGE PROGRAM INFORMATION The Federal Information Exchange in Gaithersburg, Md, runs two systems at the same address: FEDIX and MOLIS. FEDIX offers research, scholarship and service information for several federal agencies, including NASA, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration. Several more federal agencies provide minority hiring and scholarship inforamtion. MOLIS provides information about minority colleges, their programs and professors. Telnet: fedix.fie.com User name: fedix (for the federal hiring database) or molis (for the minority-college system) Both use easy menus to get you to information. HISTORY Stanford University maintains a database of documents related to Martin Luthor King. Telnet: forsythetn.stanford.edu Account: socrates At the main menu, type select mlk and hit enter. QUOTATIONS See under Dictionary. RELIGION See under Dictionary. SKI REPORTS See under weather. SPACE NASA Spacelink in Huntsville, Ala., provides all sorts of reports and data about NASA, its history and its various missions, past and present. You'll find detailed reports on every single probe, satellite and mission NASA has ever launched along with daily updates and lesson plans for teachers. The system maintains a large file library of GIF-format space graphics, but you can't download these through telnet. If you want them, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-0028. Telnet: spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the system and asked to register and chose a password. The NED-NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database lists data on more than 100,000 galaxies, quasars and other objects outside the Milky Way. Telnet: ipac.caltech.edu. Log in: ned You can learn more than you ever wanted to about quasars, novae and related objects on a system run by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Telnet: cfa204.harvard.edu Log in: einline The physics department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst runs a bulletin-board system that provides extensive conferences and document libraries related to space. Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu Log on with your name and a password. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS The University of Maryland Info Database maintains U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1991 on in its Government area. Telnet: info.umd.edu User name: info and hit enter. Chose a terminal type and hit enter (or just hit enter if you are using VT100). At the main menu, choose the number next to "Government" and hit enter. One of your options will then be for "US." Select that number and then, at the next menu, choose the one next to "Supreme Court." TELNET Hytelnet, at the University of Saskatchewan, is an online guide to hundreds of telnet sites around the world. Telnet: access.usask.ca Log in: hytelnet. THESAURUS See under Dictionary. TIME To find out the exact time: Telnet: india.colorado.edu 13 You'll see something like this: Escape character is '^]'. Sun Apr 5 14:11:41 1992 Connection closed by foreign host. The middle line tells you the date and exact Mountain Standard Time, as determined by a federal atomic clock. If you want a more philosophical approach to your time, the U.S. Naval Observatory's Automated Data Service has copies of detailed papers on such things as "the nature of time." It also carries information on how to buy a clock, along with arcana on such things as "leap seconds." Telnet: tycho.usno.navy.mil Log on: ads After you log in and register, you'll get the following menu: MAIN OPTIONS: info, note, ptti, exp, internet, nav, aust, tco, gps, loran, omega, series, transit, astro, tv, soft, vlf, goes, gpsftp, PAGE(/), HELP(?), COMMENT, EXIT(Bye) Type info and hit enter for many of the text files. WEATHER The University of Michigan's Department of Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Space Sciences supplies weather forecasts for U.S. and foreign cities, along with skiiing and hurricane reports. Telnet: madlab.sprl.umich.edu 3000 (note the 3000). No log-in name is needed. Also see under Weather in the FTP list for information on downloading satellite and radar weather images. -------------------- TELNET BBSs You might think that Usenet, with its hundreds of newsgroups, would be enough to satisfy the most dedicated of online communicators. But there are a number of "bulletin-board" and other systems that provide even more conferences or other services, many not found directly on the Net. Some are free; others charge for access. They include: Cimarron. Run by the Instituto Technical in Monterey, Mexico, this system has Spanish conferences, but English commands, as you can see from this menu of available conferences: List of Boards Name Title General Board general Dudas Dudas de Cimarron Comentarios Comentarios al SYSOP Musica Para los afinados........ Libros El sano arte de leer..... Sistemas Sistemas Operativos en General. Virus Su peor enemigo...... Cultural Espacio Cultural de Cimarron NeXT El Mundo de NeXT Ciencias Solo apto para Nerds. Inspiracion Para los Romanticos e Inspirados. Deportes Discusiones Deportivas To be able to write messages and gain access to files, you have to leave a note to SYSOP with your name, address, occupation and phone number. To do this, at any prompt, hit your M key and then enter, which will bring up the mail system. Hitting H brings up a list of commands and how to use them. Telnet: bugs.mty.itesm.mx (8 p.m. to 10 a.m., Eastern time, only). At the "login:" prompt, type bbs and hit enter. Cleveland Free-Net. The first of a series of Freenets, this represents an ambitious attempt to bring the Net to the public. Originally an in-hospital help network, it is now sponsored by Case Western Reserve University, the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio and IBM. It uses simple menus, similar to those found on CompuServe, but organized like a city: <<< CLEVELAND FREE-NET DIRECTORY >>> 1 The Administration Building 2 The Post Office 3 Public Square 4 The Courthouse & Government Center 5 The Arts Building 6 Science and Technology Center 7 The Medical Arts Building 8 The Schoolhouse (Academy One) 9 The Community Center & Recreation Area 10 The Business and Industrial Park 11 The Library 12 University Circle 13 The Teleport 14 The Communications Center 15 NPTN/USA TODAY HEADLINE NEWS ------------------------------------------------ h=Help, x=Exit Free-Net, "go help"=extended help Your Choice ==> The system has a vast and growing collection of public documents, from copies of U.S. and Ohio Supreme Court decisions to the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution. It links residents to various government agencies and has daily stories from USA Today. Beyond Usenet (found in the Teleport area), it has a large collection of local conferences on everything from pets to politics. And yes, it's free! Telnet: freenet-in-a.cwru.edu or freenet-in-b.cwru.edu When you connect to Free-Net, you can look around the system. However, if you want to be able to post messages in its conferences or use e-mail, you will have to apply in writing for an account. Information on this is available when you connect. Dialog. This commercial service offers access to a large variety of databases -- for a fairly sizable fee. You need a Dialog account to use the system through the Net. Telnet: dialog.com DUBBS. This is a bulletin-board system in Delft in the Netherlands. The conferences and files are mostly in Dutch, but the help files and the system commands themselves are in English. Telnet: tudrwa.tudelft.nl ISCA BBS. Run by the Iowa Student Computer Association, it has more than 100 conferences, including several in foreign languages. After you register, hit K for a list of available conferences and then J to join a particular conference (you have to type in the name of the conference, not the number next to it). Hitting H brings up information about commands. Telnet bbs.isca.uiowa.edu At the "login:" prompt, type bbs and hit enter. Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL). Itself a major Net access point in the San Francisco area, the WELL is also a unique online community that maintains dozens of conferences on every imaginable topic (seven devoted just to the Grateful Dead). WELL users are intelligent and opinionated; discussions are often fast and furious. The Electronic Frontier Foundation was basically started in a series of online conversations on the WELL. Although it has a serious San Francisco flavor, it has users from across the country (enough to support both East Coast and Midwest conferences). For its conferences, the WELL uses PicoSpan software, which presents messages differently than rn or nn. When you enter a conference, you can call up a list of "topics." Enter a topic number, and all of the messages start scrolling down the screen, sort of like the music on an old-fashioned player-piano. There is some online help, but new users are sent a written manual. See Chapter 2 for information on access charges (one advantage to connecting to the WELL through telnet is that unless you live in the Bay Area, it is likely to be much cheaper than other access methods). Telnet: well.sf.ca.us Youngstown Free-Net. The people who created Cleveland Free-Net sell their software for $1 to anybody willing to set up a similar system. A number of cities now have their own Free-Nets, including Youngstown, Ohio. Telnet: yfn.ysu.edu At the "login:" prompt, type visitor and hit enter. -------------------- FINGER This is a handy little program which lets you tell others more about you -- and which you can sometimes use to find out more about people whose names you see on the Net. It uses the same concept as telnet or ftp. But it works with only one file, called .plan (yes, with a period in front). This is a text file you create with a text editor in your home directory. You can put your phone number in there, or your address, or anything at all. To finger somebody else's .plan file, type this at the command line: finger email-address where email-address is the person's e-mail address. You'll get back a display that shows the last time the person was online, whether they've gotten any new mail since that time and what, if anything, is in their .plan file. Some people and institutions have come up with creative uses for these .plan files, letting you do everything from checking the weather in Massachusetts to getting the latest baseball standings. Try fingering these e-mail addresses: weather@cirrus.mit.edu Latest National Weather Service weather forecasts for regions in Massachusetts. quake@geophys.washington.edu Locations and magnitudes of recent earthquakes around the world. jtchern@ocf.berkeley.edu Current major-league baseball standings and results of the previous day's games. nasanews@space.mit.edu The day's events at NASA. ------------------------ WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: * Nothing happens when you try to connect to a telnet site. The site could be down for maintenance or problems. * You get a "host unavailable" message. The telnet site is down for some reason. Try again later. * You get a "host unknown" message. Check your spelling of the site name. * You type in a password on a telnet site that requires one, and you get a "login incorrect" message. Try logging in again. If you get the message again, hit your control and ] keys at the same time to disengage and return to your host system. * You can't seem to disconnect from a telnet site. Use control-] to disengage and return to your host system. ------------------------ FYI: The Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services and alt.bbs.internet can provide pointers to new telnet systems. Scott Yanoff periodically posts his "Updated Internet Services List" in the former; Thomas Kreeger periodically posts "Zamfield's Wonderfully Incomplete, Complete Internet BBS List" in the latter newsgroup. The alt.bbs.internet newsgroup is also where you'll find Aydin Edguer's compendium of Internet-BBS- related FAQs. Peter Scott, who maintains the Hytelnet database, runs a mailing list about new telnet services and changes in existing ones. To get on the list, send him a note at scott@sklib.usask.ca. FTP Hundreds of systems connected to Internet have file libraries, or archives, accessible to the public. Much of this consists of free or lowcost shareware programs for virtually every make of computer. If you want a different communications program for your IBM, or feel like playing a new game on your Amiga, you'll be able to get it from the Net. But there are also libraries of documents as well. If you want a copy of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, you can find it on the Net. Copies of historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence are also yours for the asking, along with a translation of a telegram from Lenin ordering the execution of rebellious peasants. You can also find song lyrics, poems, even summaries of every "Lost in Space" episode ever made. You can also find extensive files detailing everything you could ever possibly want to know about the Net itself. First you'll see how to get these files; then we'll show you where they're kept. The commonest way to get these files is through the file transfer protocol, or ftp. As with telnet, not all systems that connect to the Net have access to ftp. However, if your system is one of these, you'll be able to get many of these files through e-mail (see the next chapter). Starting ftp is as easy as using telnet. At your host system's command line, type ftp site.name and hit enter, where "site.name" is the address of the ftp site you want to reach. One major difference between telnet and ftp is that it is considered bad form to connect to most ftp sites during their business hours (generally 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time). This is because transferring files across the network takes up considerable computing power, which during the day is likely to be needed for whatever the computer's main function is. There are some ftp sites that are accessible to the public 24 hours a day, though. You'll find these noted in the list of ftp sites. How do you find a file you want, though? Until a few years ago, this could be quite the pain -- there was no master directory to tell you where a given file might be stored on the Net. Who'd want to slog through hundreds of file libraries looking for something? Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan and Peter Deutsch, students at McGill University in Montreal, asked the same question. Unlike the weather, though, they did something about it. They created a database system, called archie, that would periodically call up file libraries and basically find out what they had available. In turn, anybody could dial into archie, type in a file name, and see where on the Net it was available. Archie currently catalogs close to 1,000 file libraries around the world. Today, there are three ways to ask archie to find a file for you: through telnet, "client" Archie program on your own host system or e- mail. All three methods let you type in a full or partial file name and will tell you where on the Net it's stored. If you have access to telnet, you can telnet to one of the following addresses: archie.mcgill.ca; archie.sura.net; archie.unl.edu; archie.ans.net; or archie.rutgers.edu. If asked for a log-in name, type archie and hit enter. When you connect, the key command is prog, which you use in this form: prog filename followed by enter, where "filename" is the program or file you're looking for. If you're unsure of a file's complete name, try typing in part of the name. For example, "PKZIP" will work as well as "PKZIP201.EXE." The system does not support DOS or Unix wildcards. If you ask archie to look for "PKZIP*," it will tell you it couldn't find anything by that name. One thing to keep in mind is that a file is not necessarily the same as a program -- it could also be a document. This means you can use archie to search for, say, everything online related to the Beetles, as well as computer programs and graphics files. A number of Net sites now have their own archie programs that take your request for information and pass it onto the nearest archie database -- ask your system adminstrator if she has it online. These "client" programs seem to provide information a lot more quickly than the actual archie itself! If it is available, at your host system's command line, type archie -s filename where filename is the program or document you're looking for, and hit enter. The -s tells the program to ignore case in a file name and lets you search for partial matches. You might actually want to type it this way: archie -s filename|more which will stop the output every screen (handy if there are many sites that carry the file you want). Or you could open a file on your computer with your text-logging function. The third way, for people without access to either of the above, is e- mail. Send a message to archie@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca. You can leave the subject line blank. Inside the message, type prog filename where filename is the file you're looking for. You can ask archie to look up sveral programs by putting their names on the same "prog" line, like this: prog file1 file2 file3 Within a few hours, archie will write back with a list of the appropriate sites. In all three cases, if there is a system that has your file, you'll get a response that looks something like this: Host sumex-aim.stanford.edu Location: /info-mac/comm FILE -rw-r--r-- 258256 Feb 15 17:07 zterm-09.hqx Location: /info-mac/misc FILE -rw-r--r-- 7490 Sep 12 1991 zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx Chances are, you will get a number of similar looking responses for each program. The "host" is the system that has the file. The "Location" tells you which directory to look in when you connect to that system. Ignore the funny-looking collections of r's and hyphens for now. After them, come the size of the file or directory listing in bytes, the date it was uploaded, and the name of the file. Now you want to get that file. Assuming your host site does have ftp, you connect in a similar fashion to telnet, by typing: ftp sumex-aim.stanford.edu (or the name of whichever site you want to reach). Hit enter. If the connection works, you'll see this: Connected to sumex-aim.stanford.edu. 220 SUMEX-AIM FTP server (Version 4.196 Mon Jan 13 13:52:23 PST 1992) ready. Name (sumex-aim.stanford.edu:adamg): If nothing happens after a minute or so, hit control-C to return to your host system's command line. But if it has worked, type anonymous and hit enter. You'll see a lot of references on the Net to "anonymous ftp." This is how it gets its name -- you don't really have to tell the library site what your name is. The reason is that these sites are set up so that anybody can gain access to certain public files, while letting people with accounts on the sites to log on and access their own personal files. Next you'll be asked for your password. As a password, use your e-mail address. This will then come up: 230 Guest connection accepted. Restrictions apply. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> Now type ls and hit enter. You'll see something awful like this: 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls. total 2636 -rw-rw-r-- 1 0 31 4444 Mar 3 11:34 README.POSTING dr-xr-xr-x 2 0 1 512 Nov 8 11:06 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 11030960 Apr 2 14:06 core dr--r--r-- 2 0 1 512 Nov 8 11:06 etc drwxrwsr-x 5 13 22 512 Mar 19 12:27 imap drwxr-xr-x 25 1016 31 512 Apr 4 02:15 info-mac drwxr-x--- 2 0 31 1024 Apr 5 15:38 pid drwxrwsr-x 13 0 20 1024 Mar 27 14:03 pub drwxr-xr-x 2 1077 20 512 Feb 6 1989 tmycin 226 Transfer complete. ftp> Ack! Let's decipher this Rosetta Stone. First, ls is the ftp command for displaying a directory (you can actually use dir as well, but if you're used to MS-DOS, this could lead to confusion when you try to use dir on your host system, where it won't work, so it's probably better to just remember to always use ls for a directory while online). The very first letter on each line tells you whether the listing is for a directory or a file. If the first letter is a ``d,'' or an "l", it's a directory. Otherwise, it's a file. The rest of that weird set of letters and dashes consist of "flags" that tell the ftp site who can look at, change or delete the file. You can safely ignore it. You can also ignore the rest of the line until you get to the second number, the one just before the date. This tells you how large the file is, in bytes. If the line is for a directory, the number gives you a rough indication of how many items are in that directory -- a directory listing of 512 bytes is relatively small. Next comes the date the file or directory was uploaded, followed (finally!) by its name. Notice the README.POSTING file up at the top of the directory. Most archive sites have a "read me" document, which usually contains some basic information about the site, its resources and how to use them. Let's get this file, both for the information in it and to see how to transfer files from there to here. At the ftp> prompt, type get README and hit enter. Note that ftp sites are no different from Unix sites in general: they are case-sensitive. You'll see something like this: 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for README (4444 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. 4444 bytes received in 1.177seconds (3.8 Kbytes/s) And that's it! The file is now located in your home directory on your host system, from which you can now download it to your own computer. The simple "get" command is the key to transferring a file from an archive site to your host system. If the first letter on the line starts with a "d", then that is a directory you can enter to look for more files. If it starts with an "r", then it's a file you can get. The next item of interest is the fifth column, which tells you how large the item is in bytes. That's followed by the date and time it was loaded to the archive, followed, finally, by its name. Many sites provide a "README" file that lists simple instructions and available files. Some sites use files named "Index" or "INDEX" or something similar. If you want to download more than one file at a time (say a series of documents, use mget instead of get; for example: mget *.txt This will transfer copies of every file ending with .txt in the given directory. Before each file is copied, you'll be asked if you're sure you want it. Despite this, mget could still save you considerable time -- you won't have to type in every single file name. There is one other command to keep in mind. If you want to get a copy of a computer program, type bin and hit enter. This tells the ftp site and your host site that you are sending a binary file, i.e., a program. Most ftp sites now use binary format as a default, but it's a good idea to do this in case you've connected to one of the few that doesn't. To switch to a directory, type cd directory-name (substituting the name of the directory you want to access) and hit enter. Type ls and hit enter to get the file listing for that particular directory. To move back up the directory tree, type cd .. (note the space between the d and the first period) and hit enter. Or you could type cdup and hit enter. Keep doing this until you get to the directory of interest. Alternately, if you already know the directory path of the file you want (from our friend archie), after you connect, you could simply type get directory/subdirectory/filename On many sites, files meant for public consumption are in the pub or public directory; sometimes you'll see an info directory. Almost every site has a bin directory, which at first glance sounds like a bin in which interesting stuff might be dumped. But it actually stands for "binary" and is simply a place for the system administrator to store the programs that run the ftp system. Lost+found is another directory that looks interesting but actually never has anything of public interest in them. Before, you saw how to use archie. From our example, you can see that some system administrators go a little berserk when naming files. Fortunately, there's a way for you to rename the file as it's being transferred. Using our archie example, you'd type get zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx zterm.hqx and hit enter. Instead of having to deal constantly with a file called zterm-sys7-color-icons.hqx, you'll now have one called, simply, zterm.hqx. Those last three letters bring up something else: Many program files are compressed to save on space and transmission time. In order to actually use them, you'll have to use an un-compress program on them first. There are a wide variety of compression methods in use. You can tell which method was used by the last one to three letters at the end of a file. Here are some of the more common ones and what you'll need to un- compress the files they create (and these decompression programs can all be located through archie). .TXT By itself, this means the file is a document, rather than a program. .DOC is another common suffix for documents. No de-compression is needed, unless it is followed by .Z This is a Unix compression method. To uncompress the file, type uncompress file.name.Z and hit enter at your host system's command prompt. If it's a text file, you can read it online by typing zcat file.txt.Z | more at your host system's command line. There is a Macintosh program called MacCompress that you can use on your machine if you want to download the file (use archie to find where you can get it!). There's an MS-DOS equivalent, often found as u16.ZIP, which means it is itself compressed in the ZIP format. ZIP An MS-DOS format. Use the PKZIP package (usually found as PKZ201.exe or something similar). .ZOO A Unix and MS-DOS format. Requires the use of a program called zoo. .Hqx A Macintosh format that needs BinHex for de-compression. .SHAR A Unix format. Use unshar .tar Another Unix format, often used to compress several related files into one big file. Use tar. Often, a "tarred" file will also be compressed with the .Z method, so you first have to use uncompress and then tar. .Sit A Macintosh format, requires StuffIt. .ARC A DOS format that requires the use of ARC or ARCE. A few last words of caution: Check the size of a file before you get it. The Net moves data at phenomenal rates of speed. But that 500,000-byte file that gets transferred to your host system in a few seconds could take more than an hour or two to download to your computer if you're using a 2400-baud modem. Your host system may also have limits on the amount of bytes you can store online at any one time. Also, although it is really extremely unlikely you will ever get a file infected with a virus, if you plan to do much downloading over the Net, you'd be wise to invest in a good anti-viral program, just in case. -------------------- THE KEYBOARD CABAL System administrators are like everybody else -- they try to make things easier for themselves. And when you sit in front of a keyboard all day, that can mean trying everything possible to reduce the number of keys you actually have to hit each day. Unfortunately, that can make it difficult for the rest of us. Connect to many ftp sites, and one of the entries you'll often see is a directory named bin. You might think this is a bin where interesting things get thrown. It's not. "Bin" is short for "binary," i.e., the programs that make the ftp site work, to which you won't have access anyway. Etc is another seemingly interesting directory that turns out to be another place to store files used by the ftp site itself. Lost+Found directories are used by Unix systems for some routine housekeeping -- again, nothing of any real interest. Then, once you get into the actual file libraries, you'll find that in many cases, files will have such non-descriptive names as V1.1- AK.TXT. The best known example is probably a set of several hundred files known as RFCs, which provide the basic technical and organizational information on which much of the Internet is built. These files can be found on many ftp sites, but always in a form such as RFC101.TXT, RFC102.TXT and so on, with no clue whatsoever as to what information they contain. Fortunately, almost all ftp sites have a "Rosetta Stone" to help you decipher these names. Most will have a file named README (or some variant) that gives basic information about the system. Then, most directories will either have a similar README file or will have an index that does give brief descriptions of each file. These are usually the first file in a directory and often are in the form 00INDEX.TXT. Use the ftp command to get this file. You can then scan it online or download it to see which files you might be interested in. Another file you will frequently see is called ls-lR.Z. This contains a listing of every file on the system, but without any descriptions (the name comes from the Unix command ls -lR, which gives you a listing of all the files in all your directories). The Z at the end means the file has been compressed, which means you will have to use a Unix un-compress command before you can read the file. And finally, we have those system administrators who almost seem to delight in making things difficult -- the ones who take full advantage of Unix's ability to create absurdly long file names. On some FTP sites, you will see file names as long as 80 characters or so, full of capital letters, underscores and every other orthographic device that will make it almost impossible for you to type the file name correctly when you try to get it. Your secret weapon here is the mget command. Just type mget, a space, and the first five or six letters of the file name, followed by an asterisk, for example: mget This_F* The FTP site will ask you if you want to get the file that begins with that name. If there are several files that start that way, you might have to answer 'n' a few times, but it's still easier than trying to recreate a ludicrously long file name. -------------------- FTP SITES What follows is a list of some interesting ftp sites, arranged by category. With hundreds of ftp sites now on the Net, however, this list barely scratches the surface of what is available. Liberal use of archie will help you find specific files. The times listed for each site are in Eastern time and represent the periods during which it is considered acceptable to connect. AMIGA ftp.uu.net Has Amiga programs in the systems/amiga directory. Available 24 hours. ATARI atari.archive.umich.edu Find almost all the Atari files you'll ever need, in the atari directory. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. BOOKS pit-manager.mit.edu The pub/usenet/rec.arts.books directories has reading lists for various authors as well as lists of recommended bookstores in different cities. Unfortunately, this site uses incredibly long file names -- so long they may scroll off the end of your screen if you are using an MS-DOS or certain other computers. Even if you want just one of the files, it probably makes more sense to use mget than get. This way, you will be asked on each file whether you want to get it; otherwise you may wind up frustrated because the system will keep telling you the file you want doesn't exist (since you may miss the end of its name due to the scrolling problem). 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. COMPUTER ETHICS ftp.eff.org The home of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Use cd to get to the pub directory and then look in the EFF, SJG and CPSR directories for documents on the EFF itself and various issues related to the Net, ethics and the law. Available 24 hours. CONSUMER pit-manager.mit.edu The pub/usenet/misc.consumers directory has documents related to credit. The pub/usenet/rec.travel.air directory will tell you how to deal with airline reservation clerks, find the best prices on seats, etc. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. COOKING wuarchive.wustl.edu Look for recipes and recipe directories in the usenet/rec.food.cooking/recipes directory. gatekeeper.dec.com Recipes are in the pub/recipes directory. ESPERANTO rand.org You'll find text files about the Esperanto artificial language in the pub/esperanto directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. FTP iraun1.ira.uka.de Run by the computer-science department of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, this site offers lists of anonymous- FTP sites both internationally (in the anon.ftp.sites directory) and in Germany (in anon.ftp.sites.DE). 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. ftp.netcom.com The pub/profiles directory has lists of ftp sites. GOVERNMENT ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu The SENATE directory contains bibliographic records of U.S. Senate hearings and docments for the past several Congresses. Get the file README.DOS9111, which will explain the cryptic file names. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. nptn.org The General Accounting Office is the investigative wing of Congress. The pub/e.texts/gao.reports directory represents an experiment by the agency to use ftp to distribute its reports. Available 24 hours. HISTORY nptn.org This site has a large, growing collecting of text files. In the pub/e.texts/freedom.shrine directory, you'll find copies of important historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. Available 24 hours. ra.msstate.edu Mississipi State maintains an electic database of historical documents, detailing everything from Attilla's battle strategy to songs of soldiers in Vietnam, in the docs/history directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. seq1.loc.gov The Library of Congress has acquired numerous documents from the former Soviet government and has translated many of them into English. In the pub/soviet.archive/text.english directory, you'll find everything from telegrams from Lenin ordering the death of peasants to Khrushhchev's response to Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. The README file in the pub/soviet.archive directory provides an index to the documents. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. HONG KONG nok.lcs.mit.edu GIF pictures of Hong Kong pop stars, buildings and vistas are available in the pub/hongkong/HKPA directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. INTERNET ftp.eff.org The pub/internet-info directory has a number of documents explaining the Internet and Usenet. Available 24 hours. nic.ddn.mil The internet-drafts directory contains information about Internet, while the scc directory holds network security bulletins. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. LAW info.umd.edu U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1989 to the present are stored in the info/Government/US/SupremeCt directory. Each term has a separate directory (for example, term1992). Get the README and Index files to help decipher the case numbers. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. ftp.uu.net Supreme Court decisions are in the court-opinions directory. You'll want to get the index file, which tells you which file numbers go with which file names. The decisions come in WordPerfect and Atex format only. Available 24 hours a day. LIBRARIES ftp.unt.edu The library directory contains numerous lists of libraries with computerized card catalogs accessible through the Net. LITERATURE nptn.org In the pub/e.texts/gutenberg/etext91 and etext92 directories, you can get copies of Aesop's Fables, works by Lewis Carroll and other works of literature, as well as the Book of Mormon. Available 24 hours. world.std.com The obi directory has everything from online fables to accounts of Hiroshima survivors. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. MACINTOSH sumex-aim.stanford.edu This is the premier site for Macintosh software. After you log in, switch to the info-mac directory, which will bring up a long series of sub-directories of virtually every free and shareware Mac program you could ever want. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. ftp.uu.net Carries copies, or "mirrors" of Macintosh programs from the Simtel20 collection in the systems/mac/simtel20 directory. Available 24 hours a day. MOVIE REVIEWS lcs.mit.edu Look in the movie-reviews directory. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. MS-DOS wuarchive.wustl.edu This carries one of the world's largest collections of MS-DOS software. The files are actually copied, or "mirrored" from a computer at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missle Range (which uses ftp software that is totally incomprehensible). It also carries large collections of Macintosh, Windows, Atari, Amiga, Unix, OS9, CP/M and Apple II software. Look in the mirrors and systems directories. The gif directory contains a large number of GIF graphics images. Accessible 24 hours. ftp.uu.net Carries copies, or "mirrors" of MS-DOS programs from the Simtel20 collection in the systems/msdos/simtel20 directory. Available 24 hours a day. MUSIC cs.uwp.edu The pub/music directory has everything from lyrics of contemporary songs to recommended CDs of baroque music. It's a little different - and easier to navigate - than other ftp sites. File and directory names are on the left, while on the right, you'll find a brief description of the file or directory, like this: SITES 1528 Other music-related FTP archive sites classical/ - (dir) Classical Buying Guide database/ - (dir) Music Database program discog/ = (dir) Discographies faqs/ = (dir) Music Frequently Asked questions files folk/ - (dir) Folk Music Files and pointers guitar/ = (dir) Guitar TAB files from ftp.nevada.edu info/ = (dir) rec.music.info archives interviews/ - (dir) Interviews with musicians/groups lists/ = (dir) Mailing lists archives lyrics/ = (dir) Lyrics Archives misc/ - (dir) Misc files that don't fit anywhere else pictures/ = (dir) GIFS, JPEGs, PBMs and more. press/ - (dir) Press Releases and misc articles programs/ - (dir) Misc music-related programs for various machines releases/ = (dir) Upcoming USA release listings sounds/ = (dir) Short sound samples 226 Transfer complete. ftp> When you switch to a directory, don't include the /. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. potemkin.cs.pdx.edu The Bob Dylan archive. Interviews, notes, year-by-year accounts of his life and more, in the pub/dylan directory. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. ftp.nevada.edu Guitar chords for contemporary songs are in the pub/guitar directory, in subdirectories organized by group or artist. PETS pit-manager.mit.edu The pub/usenet/rec.pets.dogs and pub/usenet.rec.pets.cats directories have documents on the respective animals. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. PICTURES wuarchiv.wustl.edu The graphics/gif directory contains hundreds of GIF photographic and drawing images, from cartoons to cars, space images to pop stars. These are arranged in a long series of subdirectories. PHOTOGRAPHY ftp.nevada.edu Photolog is an online digest of photography news, in the pub/photo directory. RELIGION nptn.org In the pub/e.texts/religion directory, you'll find subdirectories for chapters and books of both the Bible and the Koran. Available 24 hours. SEX pit-manager.mit.edu Look in the pub/usenet/alt.sex and pub/usenet/alt.sex.wizards directories for documents related to all facets of sex. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. SCIENCE FICTION elbereth.rutgers.edu In the pub/sfl directory, you'll find plot summaries for various science-fiction TV shows, including Star Trek (not only the original and Next Generation shows, but the cartoon version as well), Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, the Twighlight Zone, the Prisoner and Doctor Who. There are also lists of various things related to science fiction and an online science-fiction fanzine. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. SHAKESPEARE atari.archive.umich.edu The shakespeare directory contains most of the Bard's works. A number of other sites have his works as well, but generally as one huge meGa-file. This site breaks them down into various categories (comedies, poetry, histories, etc.) so that you can download individual plays or sonnets. SPACE ames.arc.nasa.gov Stores text files about space and the history of the NASA space program in the pub/SPACE subdirectory. In the pub/GIF and pub/SPACE/GIF directories, you'll find astronomy- and NASA-related GIF files, including pictures of planets, satellites and other celestial objects. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. SPAIN goya.dit.upm.es This Spanish site carries an updated list of bulletin-board systems in Spain, as well as information about European computer networks, in the info/doc/net subdirectory, mostly in Spanish. The BBS list is bbs.Z, which means you will have to uncompress it to read it. Available 24 hours. TV coe.montana.edu The pub/TV/Guides directory has histories and other information about dozens of TV shows. Only two anonymous-ftp log-ins are allowed at a time, so you might have to try more than once to get in. 8 p.m. - 8 a.m. ftp.cs.widener.edu The pub/simpsons directory has more files than anybody could possibly need about Bart and family. The pub/strek directory has files about the original and Next Generation shows as well as the movies. See also under Science Fiction. TRAVEL nic.stolaf.edu Before you take that next overseas trip, you might want to see whether the State Department has issued any kind of advisory for the countries on your itinerary. The advisories, which cover everything from hurricane damage to civil war, are in the pub/travel- advisories/advisories directory, arranged by country. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. USENET ftp.uu.net In the usenet directory, you'll find "frequently asked questions" files, copied from pit-manager.mit.edu. The communications directory holds programs that let MS-DOS users connect directly with UUCP sites. In the info directory, you'll find information about ftp and ftp sites. The inet directory contains information about Internet. Available 24 hours. pit-manager.mit.edu This site contains all available "frequently asked questions" files for Usenet newsgroups in the pub/usenet directory. See under Books for a caveat in using this ftp site. 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. VIRUSES ftp.unt.edu The antivirus directory has anti-virus programs for MS- DOS and Macintosh computers. 7 p.m. - 7 a.m. WEATHER vmd.cso.uiuc.edu No password needed. The wx directory contains GIF weather images of North America. Files are updated hourly and take this general form: CV100222. The first two letters tell the type of file: CV means it is a visible-light photo taken by a weather satellite. CI images are similar, but use infrared light. Both these are in black and white. Files that begin with SA are color radar maps of the U.S. that show severe weather patterns but also fronts and temperatures in major cities. The numbers indicate the date and time (in GMT - five hours ahead of EST) of the image: the first two numbers represent the month, the next two the date, the last two the hour. The file WXKEY.GIF explains the various symbols in SA files. ------------------------ WHEN THINGS GO WRONG" * You get a "host unavailable" message. The ftp site is down for some reason. Try again later. * You get a "host unknown" message. Check your spelling of the site name. * You misspell "anonymous" when logging in and get a message telling you a password is required for whatever you typed in. Type something in, hit enter, type bye, hit enter, and try again. FYI: Liberal use of archie will help you find specific files or documents. For information on new or interesting ftp sites, try the comp.archives newsgroup on Usenet. You can also look in the comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted or news.answers newsgroups on Usenet for lists of ftp sites posted every month by Tom Czarnik and Jon Granrose. The comp.archives newsgroup carries news of new ftp sites and interesting new files on existing sites. In the comp.virus newsgroup on Usenet, look for postings that list ftp sites carrying anti-viral software for Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Atari and other computers. The comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest and comp.sys.mac.digest newsgroups provide information about new MS-DOS and Macintosh programs as well as answers to questions from users of those computers. þ