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Network Working Group EARN Staff Request for Comments: 1580 EARN Association FYI: 23 March 1994 Category: Informational

                  Guide to Network Resource Tools

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
 does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
 this memo is unlimited.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
  2. GOPHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
    2.1. What is Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
    2.2. Who can use Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.3. How to get to Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.3.1. Local clients  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.4. Using Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
    2.5. VERONICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    2.6. Learning more about Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
  3. WORLD-WIDE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
    3.1. What is World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
    3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
    3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    3.3.1. Local clients  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    3.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    3.3.2.1. E-mail access  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
    3.4. Using World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
    3.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
    3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  4. WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
    4.1. What is WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
    4.2. Who can use WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
    4.3. How to get to WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
    4.4. Using WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
    4.4.1.  E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
    4.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
    4.6  Learning more about WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  5. ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
    5.1. What is ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
    5.2. Who can use ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
    5.3. How to get to ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

EARN Staff [Page 1] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    5.4. Using ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
    5.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
    5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters . . . . . . . . . 29
    5.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
    5.4.3. Using electronic mail  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
    5.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
    5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  6. WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
    6.1. What is WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
    6.2. Who can use WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
    6.3. How to get to WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
    6.4. Using WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
    6.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
    6.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
    6.4.3. Using electronic mail  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
    6.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
    6.6. Learning more about WHOIS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
  7. X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
    7.1. What is X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
    7.2. Who can use X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
    7.3. How to get to X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
    7.4. Using X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
    7.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
    7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
    7.4.3. Using electronic mail  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
    7.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
    7.6. Learning more about X.500  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
  8. NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
    8.1. What is NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
    8.2. Who can use NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
    8.3. How to get to NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
    8.4. Using NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
    8.4.1. Local access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
    8.4.2. Remote access  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
    8.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
    8.6. Learning more about NETFIND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
  9. TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
    9.1. What is TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
    9.2. Who can use TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
    9.3  How to get to TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
    9.4. Using TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
    9.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
    9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
 10. BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
   10.1. What is BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
   10.2. Who can use BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
   10.3. How to get to BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
   10.4. Using BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

EARN Staff [Page 2] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

   10.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
   10.6. Learning more about BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
 11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
   11.1. What is LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
   11.2. Who can use LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
   11.3. How to get to LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
   11.4. Using LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
   11.4.1. Commands for LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
   11.4.2. Commands for FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
   11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
   11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
   11.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
   11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
 12. NETNEWS (USENET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
   12.1. What is NETNEWS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
   12.2. Who can use NETNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
   12.3. How to get to NETNEWS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
   12.4. Using NETNEWS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
   12.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
   12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
 13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
   13.1. ASTRA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
   13.1.1. What is ASTRA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
   13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
   13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
   13.2. NETSERV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
   13.2.1. What is NETSERV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
   13.2.2. How to get to NETSERV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
   13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
   13.3. MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
   13.3.1. What is MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
   13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
   13.3.3. Learning more about MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
   13.4. PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
   13.4.1. What is PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
   13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
   13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
   13.5. IRC  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
   13.5.1. What is IRC  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
   13.5.2. How to get to IRC  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
   13.5.3. Learning more about IRC  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
   13.6. RELAY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
   13.6.1. What is RELAY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
   13.6.2. How to get to RELAY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  100
   13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  101
 14. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  101
 15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  101
 16. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  102

EARN Staff [Page 3] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 17. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  102
 18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software  . . . . .  103
   18.1. Gopher clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  103
   18.2. World-Wide Web clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  104
   18.3. WAIS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  105
   18.4. Netnews - news reader software . . . . . . . . . . . . .  106

1. Introduction

 As the worldwide academic computer network grows and expands far
 beyond its previous confines, so the resources and services available
 on the network evolve and multiply at a dizzying rate. The typical
 user is hardpressed to keep up with this explosive growth.
 Fortunately, a number of tools are available to facilitate the task
 of locating and retrieving network resources, so that users anywhere
 can utilize texts, data, software and information for public access.
 Facilities to explore public domain software repositories, to consult
 mailing list archives and databases, to retrieve directory
 information and to participate in global group discussions are now
 available to all.
 The key to exploiting these resources is a server, special software
 on a computer somewhere in the network which accepts requests (or
 queries or commands) and sends a response automatically. The
 requestor does not have to be working on the same computer (or even
 in the same part of the world) in order to use the server. Many
 servers accept requests via electronic mail, so that often the
 requestor needs not even be on the same computer network as the
 server. In many cases, servers are interconnected so that once you
 have established contact with one server, you can easily communicate
 with other servers as well.
 Today, many users have powerful computers on the desktop, with
 advanced graphical, audio and storage capabilities, which are
 connected to the network. This fact has given rise to what is known
 as the client-server model. Users can have special software on their
 local computer called a client which can utilize the capabilities of
 that computer and can also communicate with a server on the network.
 These clients provide an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface, allow
 use of pointing devices such as a mouse, and exploit other local
 features. The client sends the user's requests to a server using a
 standardized format (called a protocol) and the server sends its
 response in a condensed format which the client displays to the user
 in a more readable way.
 Several of the tools described herein have several different
 functions.  However they could be classified in functional areas
 according to their main purpose. Sections two and three cover two

EARN Staff [Page 4] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 services, Gopher and World-Wide Web, which use the client-server
 model to explore the network providing a means of moving through a
 wide range of network sources and resources in a uniform and
 intuitive way.  A tool for searching in a wide range of different
 databases located throughout the network, WAIS, is documented in
 section four. The problem of knowing where to find network resources
 (files and programs) is addressed in section five, which deals with
 archie. Three tools for finding people, computers and their network
 addresses, WHOIS, X.500 and Netfind, are discussed in sections six,
 seven and eight. While just about all of these network tools can be
 used to get files of one sort or another, there are a few servers
 available for getting files easily and efficiently from various
 repositories in the network. Two of these servers, TRICKLE and
 BITFTP, are covered in sections nine and ten. Sections eleven and
 twelve deal with what is perhaps the most popular of all the network
 resources, discussion groups on every imaginable topic. The two tools
 discussed there are LISTSERV and Netnews (Usenet). Section thirteen
 gives brief descriptions and pointers for a number of tools which
 were not mainstream enough to get a full description. Some are still
 in the developmental stage (Prospero), some are relatively unknown
 outside a particular network (ASTRA and Netserv from EARN/Bitnet and
 Mailbase from JANET) and some are meant for chatting rather than work
 (Relay and IRC).
 The purpose of this guide is to supply the basic information that
 anyone on the network needs to try out and begin using these tools. A
 basic knowledge of networking terminology has been assumed, as well
 as familiarity with the basic tools of networking: electronic mail
 (often referred to as e-mail or simply mail throughout this guide)
 and, for those connected to the Internet, FTP (file transfer
 protocol) and Telnet (remote login). It is beyond the scope of this
 guide to describe these basic tools. The example in the BITFTP
 section of this guide shows how one can use BITFTP to get guides to
 these tools over the network.

2. GOPHER

2.1. What is Gopher

 The Internet Gopher, or simply Gopher, is a distributed document
 delivery service. It allows users to explore, search and retrieve
 information residing on different locations in a seamless fashion.
 When browsing it, the information appears to the user as a series of
 nested menus. This kind of menu structure resembles the organization
 of a directory with many subdirectories and files. The subdirectories
 and the files may be located either on the local server site or on
 remote sites served by other Gopher servers. From the user point of

EARN Staff [Page 5] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 view, all information items presented on the menus appear to come
 from the same place.
 The information can be a text or binary file, directory information
 (loosely called phone book), image or sound. In addition, Gopher
 offers gateways to other information systems (World-Wide Web, WAIS,
 archie, WHOIS) and network services (Telnet, FTP). Gopher is often a
 more convenient way to navigate in a FTP directory and to download
 files.
 A Gopher server holds the information and handles the users' queries.
 In addition, links to other Gopher servers create a network wide
 cooperation to form the global Gopher web (Gopherspace).

2.2. Who can use Gopher

 Gopher uses the client-server model to provide access to the Gopher
 web.  You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet)
 in order to use a client on your computer to access Gopher.

2.3. How to get to Gopher

 Users explore the Gopher menus  using various local clients or
 accessing a remote client via an interactive Telnet session.
 2.3.1. Local clients
    Public domain clients for accessing a Gopher server are available
    for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VM/CMS, VMS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows.
    The clients are available for anonymous FTP from many FTP sites
    (e.g., boombox.micro.umn.edu in the directory /pub/gopher). See
    the list of freely available client software in Appendix A.
 2.3.2. Remote clients
    Some sites allow public access to a client. To access such a
    remote client, telnet to one of these sites:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |  info.anu.edu.au                 Australia (login: info)      |
    |  tolten.puc.cl                   Columbia                     |
    |  ecnet.ec                        Ecuador                      |
    |  gopher.chalmers.se              Sweden                       |
    |  consultant.micro.umn.edu        USA                          |
    |  gopher.uiuc.edu                 USA                          |
    |  panda.uiowa.edu                 USA (login: panda)           |
    |  sunsite.unc.edu                 USA                          |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+

EARN Staff [Page 6] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    At the login: prompt type gopher (unless specified otherwise) and
    the top-level Gopher menu for that site will be displayed.
    Users are requested to use the site closest to them.
 2.4. Using Gopher
    The implementations of the Gopher clients on various platforms are
    slightly different to take advantage of the platforms'
    capabilities (mouse, graphic functions, X-Windows server) and to
    offer the popular look and feel. Even with different
    implementations, the same set of functions and commands is
    available.
    When issuing the gopher command, you will be connected
    automatically to the default Gopher server specified at the
    installation. The format of the command is:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  gopher    <hostname>                                         |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    where hostname is an optional alternative Gopher server you want
    to talk to.
    When connected to a Gopher server, it is still possible to access
    another server by exploring the Other Gopher servers in the rest
    of the world branch. To locate them more easily, the Gopher
    servers are distributed in geographical regions:
  • Africa
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • North America
  • Pacific
  • South America
    and then by countries.
    Access to a Gopher server is identical whether using a local or a
    remote client: a simple menu-driven interface which doesn't
    require any special training or knowledge from the user.
    Here is a sample menu:

EARN Staff [Page 7] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  1. —————————————————————-
                     Internet Gopher Information Client v1.1
                          Information About Gopher
        1.  About Gopher.
        2.  Search Gopher News <?>
        3.  Gopher News Archive/
        4.  comp.infosystems.gopher (Usenet newsgroup)/
        5.  Gopher Software Distribution/
        6.  Gopher Protocol Information/
        7.  University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy.
        8.  Frequently Asked Questions about Gopher.
        9.  gopher93/
        10. Gopher| example server/
        11. How to get your information into Gopher.
    --> 12. New Stuff in Gopher.
        13. Reporting Problems or Feedback.
        14. big Ann Arbor gopher conference picture.gif <Picture>
    Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu          Page: 1/1
  1. —————————————————————-
    In the example above, any item can be selected by typing its line
    number or by moving the cursor (-->) next to it.
    An item could be:
  • a subdirectory
  • a text file
  • a binary file
  • a sound file
  • an image file
  • a phone book (directory information)
  • an index-search
  • a Telnet session
    Items are displayed with an identifying symbol next to them. In
    the example above, "<?>" means a full text index-search, "/" means
    a subdirectory, "<Picture>" means an image file and no symbol
    means a text file.
    Some Gopher clients are not able to handle certain file types
    (e.g., sound files). Some clients display only files of types they
    can handle or files they suppose you are interested in. Others

EARN Staff [Page 8] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    display all types of files.
    Most Gopher clients allow you to create, view and select
    bookmarks. A bookmark keeps track of the exact location of a
    Gopher item, regardless of where it resides. It is useful when you
    often need to reach a file or a service located far from the
    top-level directory. A collection of bookmarks is like a
    customized Gopher menu.
    Some capabilities of a local Gopher client are bound to the
    capabilities of your own computer. In fact, for sound files, image
    files and Telnet sessions, the Gopher client looks for the
    appropriate software on your computer and passes control to it to
    perform the requested task. When the task is completed, control is
    returned to the Gopher client.
    At any time, it is possible to terminate the session (quit
    command), to cancel the current processing or to get the on-line
    help (help command).
    An item is processed according to its type:
    a subdirectory
       its contents are displayed. To go up one level, use the up
       command.
    a text file
       the file is displayed. Then you can browse it, search for a
       particular string, print it on a local printer or copy (save)
       it onto your local disk space in a user-specified file (the
       last 2 functions may not be available to you).
    a binary file
       the remote file is simply copied onto your local disk space in
       a user-specified file. Binary files are binhexed Macintosh
       files, archives (.zip, .tar,...), compressed files, programs,
       etc.
    a sound file
       the remote file is played through your local audio device if it
       exists, as well as the appropriate utility. Only one sound file
       can be active at a time; you will be warned if you try to play
       a sound before a previous one is done.
    an image file
       the remote file is displayed on your computer screen if an
       image viewer exists on your computer.

EARN Staff [Page 9] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    a phone book
       you are prompted for a search string to look up people
       information through the selected phone book. Since different
       institutions have different directory services, the queries are
       not performed in the same fashion.
    an index-search
       you are prompted for a search string which may be one or more
       words, plus the special operators and, or, and not. The search
       is case-insensitive. Usually, an index is created to help users
       locate the information in a set of documents quickly. E.g.:
            terminal and setting or tset
       will find all documents which contain both the words terminal
       and setting, or the word tset. or is nonexclusive so the
       documents may contain all of the words.
       The result of the index-search looks like any Gopher menu, but
       each menu item is a file that contains the specified search
       string.
    a Telnet session
       Telnet sessions are normally text-based information services,
       for example, access to library catalogs.

2.5. VERONICA

 Veronica was designed as a solution to the problem of resource
 discovery in the rapidly-expanding Gopher web, providing a keyword
 search of more than 500 Gopher menus. Veronica helps you find
 Gopher-based information without doing a menu-by-menu, site-by-site
 search. It is to the Gopher information space, what archie is to the
 FTP archives.
 Veronica is accessible from most top-level Gopher menus or from the
 Other Gopher servers... branch. There is no need for opening another
 connection or another application.
 When you choose a veronica search , you will be prompted to enter a
 keyword or keywords. The simplest way to search with veronica is to
 enter a single word and hit the RETURN key. It does not matter
 whether the word is upper-case or lower-case. The veronica server
 will return a gopher menu composed of items whose titles match your
 keyword specification. Items can be accessed as with any Gopher menu.
 E.g.:
      eudora

EARN Staff [Page 10] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 will give you a list of menu titles that contain eudora, such as:
      Electronic Mail: Eudora on Macintosh, Micro-08
      Modem Setting Eudora Slip.
      A UNIX-based Eudora reader for those that ...
      Eudora:  Popmail for the Macintosh.
      Eudora.
 etc.
 The search string may contain keywords optionally separated by and,
 or and not. If there is no operator between 2 keywords, and is
 assumed. E.g.:
      eudora and macintosh
 will give you a list of menu titles that contain both eudora and
 macintosh, such as:
      Eudora:  Popmail for the Macintosh.
      v4.1 EUDORA: E-MAIL FOR THE MACINTOSH.
      Micro News:  Eudora - A Mailer for the Macintosh.
      Eudora: Electronic Mail on Your Macintosh.
      ACS News - Eudora Mail Reader for Macintosh.
 etc.
 "*" is the wildcard character. It can replace any other character or
 characters at the end of a keyword. E.g.:
      desk*
 will give you a list of menu titles, such as:
      The Help Desk.
      Keene State College Press Release COMPUTER ON EVERY DESK.
      DESKQview/X... An alternative to Windows???.
      Ethernet at Your Desktop/
 etc.

2.6. Learning more about Gopher

 The Internet Gopher is developed by the Computer and Information
 Services Department of the University of Minnesota. Bug reports,
 comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to the Gopher
 development team at: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu.

EARN Staff [Page 11] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Mailing list: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu
 To subscribe send a mail to:
 gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu
 Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.gopher
 A comprehensive description of veronica search methods is available
 from the veronica menus.
 Veronica is being developed by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the
 University of Nevada. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should
 be addressed to: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu

3. WORLD-WIDE WEB

3.1. What is World-Wide Web

 World-Wide Web (also called WWW or W3) is an information system based
 on hypertext, which offers a means of moving from document to
 document (usually called to navigate) within a network of
 information.
 Hypertext documents are linked to each other through a selected set
 of words. For example, when a new word, or a new concept, is
 introduced in a text, hypertext makes it possible to point to another
 document which gives more details about it. The reader can open the
 second document by selecting the unknown word or concept and the
 relevant section is displayed. The second document may also contain
 links to further details. The reader need not know where the
 referenced document is, and there is no need to type a command to
 display it, or to browse it to find the right paragraph.
 Cross-references may be defined in the same document. A collection of
 documents is a database.
 If you were reading this document on a hypertext system, instead of
 this all too short explanation about hypertext, you would have a
 selectable pointer to a complete hypertext information web with
 examples and more pointers to other definitions.
 For instance, in the first document you might read:
  1. —————————————————————-
 The  WorldWideWeb (W3)  is a  wide-area "hypermedia"  information
 retrieval initiative aiming  to give universal access  to a large
 universe of documents.
  1. —————————————————————-

EARN Staff [Page 12] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Selecting hypermedia will display the following explanation for you:
  1. —————————————————————-
                        WHAT IS HYPERTEXT
 Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear.
 Hypertext is text which contains "links" to other texts. The term
 was coined by "Ted Nelson" around 1965 (see "History").
 HyperMedia is a term used  for hypertext which is not constrained
 to  be text:  it can  include  graphics, video  and "sound",  for
 example. Apparently Ted Nelson was the first to use this term too.
  1. —————————————————————-
 Then you can learn more about links and Nelson. Indeed, the links in
 WWW are not confined to text only, so the term hypermedia is more
 accurate.  For example, the link to Nelson might point to a file
 containing a picture of Ted Nelson. The picture would be displayed on
 your screen if you have a suitable configuration.
 Also, special documents (indexes) in the WWW information space can be
 search for given keyword(s). The result is a document which contains
 links to the documents found.
 World-Wide Web uses hypertext over the network: the linked documents
 may be located at various sites. WWW can handle different text
 formats and various information organizations. WWW also provides
 access to many of the other tools described in this guide.

3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web

 WWW uses the client-server model to provide access to the information
 universe. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the
 Internet) in order to use a client on your computer to access WWW. If
 you are on the Internet, but don't have a WWW client on your
 computer, you can still enter the World-Wide Web. Several sites offer
 public interactive access to WWW clients (see the Remote clients
 section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).
 If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet
 then you can not fully exploit the vast potential of WWW. However, a
 mail-robot is available at the address: listserv@info.cern.ch which
 gives e-mail access to WWW-accessible listserv@info.cern.ch files.
 (see E-mail access section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).

EARN Staff [Page 13] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web

 Users access the World-Wide Web facilities via a client called a
 browser. This interface provides transparent access to the WWW
 servers.  If a local WWW client is not available on your computer,
 you may use a client at a remote site. Thus, an easy way to start
 with WWW is to access a remote client.
 3.3.1. Local clients
    Usage of a local client is encouraged since it provides better
    performance and better response time than a remote client.
    Public domain clients for accessing WWW servers are available for:
    Macintosh, MS-DOS, VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows. The
    clients are available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in the
    directory /pub/www. All these platforms support a simple line mode
    browser. In addition, graphical clients are available for:
    Macintosh, Windows, X-Windows, NeXT and Unix. See the list of
    freely available client software in Appendix A.
 3.3.2. Remote clients
    To access a remote WWW client, telnet to the client site. If you
    are new to WWW, you should telnet to info.cern.ch. No login is
    needed. You will immediately enter the WWW line mode browser. Some
    publicly accessible clients feature locally developed clients.
    Most remote clients are at sites with WWW servers with information
    on specific areas. After you telnet to the client site, at the
    login: prompt enter www, no password is needed. The following
    remote client sites are available:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  Site                   Country          Server Specialization|
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |  vms.huji.ac.il         Israel            Environment         |
    |  info.cern.ch           Switzerland (CERN) High-energy physics|
    |  fatty.law.cornell.edu  USA               Law                 |
    |  ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu   USA               History             |
    |  www.njit.edu           USA                                   |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    CERN is the entry point to find information about WWW itself and
    to have an overview of the Web with a catalogue of the databases
    sorted by subject.

EARN Staff [Page 14] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    3.3.2.1. E-mail access
       In order to get a file, send mail to listserv@info.cern.ch with
       a SEND command. The SEND command returns the document with the
       given WWW address, subject to certain restrictions. Hypertext
       documents are formatted to 72 character width, with links
       numbered. A separate list at the end of the file gives the
       document-addresses of the related documents.
       If the document is hypertext, its links will be marked by
       numbers in brackets, and a list of document addresses by number
       will be appended to the message. In this way, you can navigate
       through the web, more or less. A good file to start with would
       be:
    http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
       Note that, despite the name listserv in the address of this
       mail robot, it is not a LISTSERV server.
       A note of caution from the WWW developers and maintainers:
       "As the robot gives potential mail access to a *vast* amount of
       information, we must emphasise that the service should not be
       abused.  Examples of appropriate use would be:
  • Accessing any information about W3 itself;
  • Accessing any CERN and/or physics-related or network

development related information;

       Examples of INappropriate use would be:
  • Attempting to retrieve binaries or tar files or anything more

than directory listings or short ASCII files from FTP archive

         sites;
       * Reading Usenet newsgroups which your site doesn't receive;
       * Repeated automatic use.
       There is currently a 1000 line limit on any returned file. We
       don't want to overload other people's mail relays or our
       server. We reserve the right to withdraw the service at any
       time. We are currently monitoring all use of the server, so
       your reading will not initially enjoy privacy.
       Enjoy!"
       The W3 team at CERN (www-bug@info.cern.ch)

EARN Staff [Page 15] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

3.4. Using World-Wide Web

 When using a graphical interface, you access the WWW functions by
 pressing mouse buttons. In particular, references are highlighted or
 underlined words. To follow a link, click on the associated
 reference.
 The line mode browser is a more simple user interface: references are
 numbers in square brackets next to words. Type the number and hit the
 RETURN key to follow a reference. For example, here is the beginning
 of the Subject Catalogue you get on the CERN server:
  1. —————————————————————-
       The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue
                       WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY
 This is  the subject catalogue.  See also arrangement  by service
 type[1]. Mail  www-request@info.cern.ch to  add pointers  to this
 list.
 Aeronautics     Mailing list archive index[2]. See also NASA LaRC[3]
 Agriculture[4]  Separate list, see also Almanac mail servers[5].
 Astronomy and Astrophysics
                 Abstract Indexes[6] at NASA, Astrophysics work at
                 FNAL[7],   Princeton's[8]   Sloane  Digital   Sky
                 Survey,  the  STELAR   project,  Space  Telescope
                 Electronic Information System[9], the Southampton
                 University  Astronomy   Group[10],  the  National
                 Solar Observatory[11],  Astrophysics work  at the
                 AHPCRC[12]. See also: space[13].
 Bio Sciences[14] Separate list.
 Computing[15]   Separate list.
 1-81, Back, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
  1. —————————————————————-
 The following commands are available within WWW. Some are disabled
 when not applicable (e.g., Find is enabled only when the current
 document is an index). Angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional
 parameter.

EARN Staff [Page 16] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Help
    gives a list of available commands depending on the context, and
    the hypertext address of the current document.
 Manual
    displays the on-line manual.
 Quit
    exits WWW.
 Up, Down
    scrolls up or down one page in the current document.
 Top, BOttom
    goes to the top or the bottom of the current document.
 Back
    goes back to the document you were reading before.
 HOme
    goes back to the first document you were reading.
 Next, Previous
    goes to the next or previous document in the list of pointers from
    the document that led to the current one.
 List
    gives a numbered list of the links from the current document. To
    follow a link, type in the number.
 Recall <number>
    if number is omitted, gives a numbered list of the documents you
    have visited.
    To display one specific document, re-issue the command with
    number.
 <Find> keyword
    queries the current index with the supplied keyword(s). A list of
    matching entries is displayed with possibly links to further
    details.  Find can be omitted if the first keyword does not
    conflict with another WWW command. Multiple keywords are separated
    by blanks.
 Go docaddress
    goes to the document represented by the given hypertext address,
    which is interpreted relatively to the current document.

EARN Staff [Page 17] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Extra command available on Unix versions only:
 Print
    prints the current document, without the numbered document
    references.  The default print command is lpr, but it may be
    defined in your local working environment by the variable
    WWW_PRINT_COMMAND.
 To access WWW with the line mode browser, type: www. The default
 first document will appear on your screen. From this point, you
 should be able to navigate through the WWW universe by reading the
 text and following the instructions at the bottom of the screen. If
 you want to start with a first document other than the default, or if
 you want to change some other aspect of the usual interaction, there
 are a number of command line parameters and options available. The
 full format of the www command to invoke the line mode browser is:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |   www      <options>  <docaddress <keyword>>                  |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 docaddress
    is the hypertext address of the document at which you want to
    start browsing.
 keyword
    queries the index specified by docaddress with the supplied
    keyword(s).  A list of matching entries is displayed. Multiple
    keywords are separated by blanks.
 Options are:
  1. n

non-interactive mode. The document is formatted and displayed to

    the screen. Pages are delimited with form feed characters (FF).
  1. listrefs

adds a list of the addresses of all documents references to the

    end.  Non-interactive mode only.
  1. pn

sets the page length to n lines. Without a number, makes the page

    length infinite. Default is 24.

EARN Staff [Page 18] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  1. wn

sets the page width to n columns. The default is 78, 79 or 80

    depending on the system.
  1. na

hides references in the text. Useful, when printing out the

    document.
  1. version

displays the version number of the software.

 The commands listed above should be available in all clients. They
 may be abbreviated (CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable
 abbreviation). Case is not significant. Special characteristics of
 the line mode browser interface are:
 number
    type in a number given in [] and hit the RETURN key to follow the
    link associated to the reference.
 RETURN
    hit the RETURN key to display the next page of the current
    document (without a reference number).

3.5. Examples

 WWW gives you access to an information universe. Let's say you want
 to know how many film versions of The Three Musketeers there have
 been. You browse the WWW Subject Catalogue and select Movies:
  1. —————————————————————-
                                  Movie database browser (Cardiff)
 A Hypertext movie database browser
 Sep 2nd... Your help is needed..[1]
 Aug 29th.. Images, sounds, mpegs & reviews[2]
 Select the type of search you'd like to perform:-
    Movie people[3].....(multi Oscar winners)[4] or
    Movie titles[5] .....(multi Oscar winners)[6]
 Searches the "rec.arts.movies" movie database system, maintained
 by Col Needham et-al.

EARN Staff [Page 19] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Here[7] is some information on list maintainers.
 If you have a comment or suggestion, it can be recorded here[8]
 HERE[9] is a pre-1986 movie information gopher server. (at
         Manchester UK)
 1-13, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 5
  1. —————————————————————-
 You select Movie titles, and then type three musketeers as keywords:
  1. —————————————————————-
                                               Movie title queries
                        MOVIE TITLE QUERY
 Enter a movie title or substring.
 Example,  to search  for movies  with the  word "alien"  in their
 title, type "alien".
 This will return details on several movies, including Aliens[1]
 Note: if the title begins with A  or The, leave it out. If you're
 determined to include it, then put ', A' or ', The' at the end of
 the of the substring e.g.
    Enforcer, The
    Gauntlet, The
 Searching is case insensitive.
  search menu[2] Fun and Games page[3] COMMA home page[4]
 FIND <keywords>, 1-5, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more,
 or Help: three musketeers
  1. —————————————————————-
 You find that there have been six film versions of the story:

EARN Staff [Page 20] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  1. —————————————————————-
                                                        Movie Info
 Here are the results from the search for "three musketeers"
       Three Musketeers, The (1921)[1]
       Three Musketeers, The (1933)[2]
       Three Musketeers, The (1935)[3]
       Three Musketeers, The (1939)[4]
       Three Musketeers, The (1948)[5]
       Three Musketeers, The (1974)[6]
     search menu[7] Fun and Games page[8] COMMA home page[9]
                                                         Rob.H[10]
                                        Robert.Hartill@cm.cf.ac.uk
 FIND <keywords>, 1-10, Back, Up, Quit, or Help: 1
  1. —————————————————————-
 You decide to look for more information on the 1921 version:
  1. —————————————————————-
                                                        Movie Info
 Here are the results from the search for "Three Musketeers, The (1921)"
                       THREE MUSKETEERS, THE (1921)
 1921
   Cast           Belcher, Charles[1] ......Bernajoux
                  De Brulier, Nigel[2] ......Cardinal Richelieu
                  De La Motte, Marguerite[3] ......Constance Bonacieux
                  Fairbanks, Douglas[4] ......D'Artagnan
                  Irwin, Boyd[5] ......Comte de Rochefort
                  MacLaren, Mary[6] ......Queen Anne of Austria
                  Menjou, Adolphe[7] ......Louis XIII
                  Pallette, Eugene[8] ......Aramis

EARN Staff [Page 21] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

                  Poff, Lon[9] ......Father Joseph
                  Siegmann, George[10] ......Porthos
                  Stevens, Charles[11] ......Planchet
   Directed by    Niblo, Fred[12]
   Music by       Gottschalk, Louis F.[13]
 1-21, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 7
  1. —————————————————————-
 You're hooked! You decide to look for more information on Adolphe
 Menjou, search more titles, find Oscar winners, etc.

3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web

 World-Wide Web is being developed at CERN (European Particle Physics
 Laboratory) by the World-Wide Web team leaded by Tim Berners-Lee. Bug
 reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to:
 www-bug@info.cern.ch
 On-line documentation is available from info.cern.ch, for anonymous
 FTP or using the remote WWW client.
 Mailing lists: www-talk@info.cern.ch
 To subscribe send a mail to www-talk-request@info.cern.ch
 Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www

4. WAIS

4.1. What is WAIS

 WAIS, Wide Area Information Server,  is a distributed information
 retrieval system. It helps users search databases over networks using
 an easy-to-use interface. The databases (called sources) are mostly
 collections of text-based documents, but they may also contain sound,
 pictures or video as well. Databases on topics ranging from
 Agriculture to Social Science can be searched with WAIS.
 The databases may be organized in different ways, using various
 database systems, but the user isn't required to learn the query
 languages of the different databases. WAIS uses natural language
 queries to find relevant documents. The result of the query is a set
 of documents which contain the words of the query: no semantic
 information is extracted from the query.

EARN Staff [Page 22] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

4.2. Who can use WAIS

 WAIS uses the client-server model to provide access to databases. You
 must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) in order
 to use a client on your computer to access WAIS.
 If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet you
 can still exploit some of the potential of WAIS. An e-mail interface
 is available at the address: waismail@quake.think.com which gives
 e-mail access to WAIS databases (see E-mail access section under
 Using WAIS below).

4.3. How to get to WAIS

 There are many WAIS servers throughout the network. A
 directory-of-servers database is available at several sites. You can
 address a query to it, e.g., to find out what databases are available
 on a particular subject. This database is also available via
 anonymous FTP from Think.com in the directory /wais as file
 wais-sources.tar.Z.
 If you do not have access to a WAIS client, (at least) two
 demonstration sites are available to allow you to get acquainted with
 WAIS. You can telnet to:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  quake.think.com   (login: wais)                              |
 |  sunsite.unc.edu   (login: swais)                             |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 The two demonstration sites above run swais (Screen WAIS), a simple
 WAIS client for Unix.

4.4. Using WAIS

 There are many freely available client software programs for various
 operating systems (Unix, VMS, MVS, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Macintosh) and
 for specific environments (GNU Emacs, X-Windows, Openlook, Sunview,
 NeXT, and MS-Windows). See the list of freely available client
 software in Appendix A.
 The client interface differs slightly on different platforms.
 However, the queries are performed in the same way, whatever the
 interface.

EARN Staff [Page 23] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  • Step 1: The user selects a set of databases to be searched from

among the available databases.

  • Step 2: The user formulates a query by giving keywords to be

searched for.

  • Step 3: When the query is run, WAIS asks for information from each

selected database.

  • Step 4: Headlines of documents satisfying the query are displayed.

The selected documents contain the requested words and phrases.

   Selected documents are ranked according to the number of matches.
  • Step 5: To retrieve a document, the user simply selects it from the

resulting list.

  • Step 6: If the response is incomplete, the user can state the

question differently or feed back to the system any one or more of

   the selected documents he finds relevant.
  • Step 7: When the search is run again, the results will be updated

to include documents which are similar to the ones selected,

   meaning documents which share a large number of common words.

4.4.1. E-mail access:

 You can query WAIS databases and retrieve documents by sending
 commands in the body part of an e-mail message to
 waismail@quake.think.com. The Subject: line is ignored. The important
 commands are (a vertical bar (|) indicates a choice of parameters):
 help
    to get the help file
 maxres number
    to set the maximum number of results to be returned.
 search source-name | "source-name1 source-name2 ..." keywords
    where:
    source-name
       is a source name as found in the directory-of-servers (with or
       without the .src ending). Use double-quotes (") to group
       several sources to be searched.
    keywords
       are the words you would normally type into a query.

EARN Staff [Page 24] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    You may specify several search requests in a mail message. If you
    don't know what sources you can search, just try anything. If the
    source name is not recognised, you'll get a list of sources.
 retrieve docid
    to retrieve a document from a database. docid is a DocID as
    returned by a search above. You may put more than one retrieval
    request in a mail message, but you must leave a blank line between
    requests. The docid must be written exactly as returned by a
    search request, including any spaces. You can retrieve non-text
    documents as well as text. If the document is of type TEXT or WSRC
    you will get the result directly. Other types will be UUENCODED.
    DocID: docid
    same as retrieve. This form is identical to the form which is
    returned by a search request. It makes it easy to use the reply
    mail function to retrieve results.

4.5. Examples

 When you log in to the demonstration site at quake.think.com, you
 have immediate access to the directory-of-servers database via the
 swais client software. To find recipes using papaya, you would select
 the recipes database and give papaya as the keyword. Here are the
 results of the search:
  1. —————————————————————-
   #  Score Source                  Title                    Lines
 001: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Dawn's Muffins, Pt III     339
 002: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Muffins 3                  632
 003: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pineapple                  678
 004:  750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pork and Papaya Salad       33
 005:  750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Bread                      681
 006:  500 (recipes) roder@cco. Re: NONFAT BAKERY COLLECTION   423
 007:  500 (recipes) shiva@hoss Re: Juice Recipes               65
 008:  250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Prawn Salad                 49
 009:  250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: COLLECTION: Lots of Avoca  447
 010:  250 (recipes) mecca@acsu Re: REQUEST: blender-made fru   29
 011:  250 (recipes) Ann.Adamci Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made   38
 012:  250 (recipes) patth@Pani Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made   49
 013:  250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Avocados                   459
 014:  250 (recipes) red_trek@d Re: VEGAN: red beans and rice   78
  1. —————————————————————-
 You can then select any of the above documents for viewing, for
 example, the Pork and Papaya Salad recipe:

EARN Staff [Page 25] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  1. —————————————————————-
 Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
 From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
 Subject: Pork and Papaya Salad
 Message-ID: <5BBP2SB@taronga.com>
 Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 06:51:47 GMT
 Lines: 23
 1/4 cup dried currants
 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
 1/4 cup walnut oil
 1/4 cup chicken broth
 1 tablespoon honey
 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1 pound cooked boneless pork loin roast
 1 head Belgian endive
 Bibb lettuce leaves
 2 papayas, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
 2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
 1/4 cup broken walnut pieces
 In a small bowl pour enough boiling water over currants to cover.
 Let stand 5 minutes; drain. For dressing, in a screw-top jar
 combine vinegar, oil, chicken broth, honey, and cinnamon. Cover;
 shake well. Trim fat from pork; slice thinly. Separate leaves of
 Belgian endive. Line 6 salad plates with lettuce leaves. Arrange
 pork, endive, papaya, and avocado on plates. Sprinkle with
 currants and walnuts. Drizzle dressing over salads.
 Stephanie da Silva                            arielle@taronga.com
  1. —————————————————————-
 If you give more than one keyword, then all documents containing any
 of the keywords will be listed.

4.6. Learning more about WAIS

 A bibliography of documents, services and sources for WAIS is
 maintained by Barbara Lincoln Brooks of WAIS Inc. The bibliography is
 available from ftp.wais.com in the directory /pub/wais-inc-doc along
 with many other WAIS documents.
 There are currently four main FTP sites for WAIS documentation and
 software:

EARN Staff [Page 26] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 For information on free WAIS software contact freewais@cnidr.org
 Mailing list: wais-discussion@wais.com
 To subscribe send a mail to wais-discussion-request@wais.com
 Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais
 WAIS was developed at Thinking Machines Corporation.

5. ARCHIE

5.1. What is ARCHIE

 Archie is an information system. It offers an electronic directory
 service for locating information in the international TCP/IP network
 (the Internet).
 The best known use of archie is for scanning a database of the
 contents of more than 1000 anonymous FTP sites around the world.
 Currently, this database contains more than 2,100,000 file names from
 anonymous FTP sites. This database is known as the archie database.
 The files made available at anonymous FTP sites are software packages
 for various systems (Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Unix, etc.),
 utilities, information or documentation files, mailing list or Usenet
 group discussion archives. At most FTP sites, the resources are
 organized hierarchically in directories and subdirectories. The
 database tracks both the directory path and the file names.
 The archie database is automatically updated, thereby ensuring that
 the information is accurate. Using this database, users can easily
 find the the location of files they need without logging onto several
 machines.

5.2. Who can use ARCHIE

 Users on any network can access the archie database by electronic
 mail.  Other means of access are available to users on the Internet
 (see the section Using ARCHIE below for details).
 You are requested to respect a few basic rules when you request
 information from an archie server:

EARN Staff [Page 27] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  • avoid connecting during working hours; most of the archie

servers are

      not dedicated machines, they have local functions as well.
  • make your queries as specific as possible; the response will be

quicker and shorter.

  • user interfaces installed on your computer contribute to reduce

the

      load on the server sites, please use them.
  • use the archie server closest to you and, in particularly, don't

overload the transatlantic lines.

5.3. How to get to ARCHIE

 The archie database is maintained in the following locations:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  Host                               Country                   |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  archie.au                          Australia                 |
 |  archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at         Austria                   |
 |  archie.univie.ac.at                Austria                   |
 |  archie.uqam.ca                     Canada                    |
 |  archie.funet.fi                    Finland                   |
 |  archie.th-darmstadt.de             Germany                   |
 |  archie.doc.ic.ac.uk                Great-Britain             |
 |  archie.ac.il                       Israel                    |
 |  archie.unipi.it                    Italy                     |
 |  archie.wide.ad.jp                  Japan                     |
 |  archie.kyoto-u.ac.jp               Japan                     |
 |  archie.hana.nm.kr                  Korea                     |
 |  archie.sogang.ac.kr                Korea                     |
 |  archie.nz                          New Zealand               |
 |  archie.rediris.es                  Spain                     |
 |  archie.luth.se                     Sweden                    |
 |  archie.switch.ch                   Switzerland               |
 |  archie.ncu.edu.tw                  Taiwan                    |
 |  archie.ans.net                     USA                       |
 |  archie.internic.net                USA                       |
 |  archie.rutgers.edu                 USA                       |
 |  archie.sura.net                    USA                       |
 |  archie.unl.edu                     USA                       |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

EARN Staff [Page 28] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 There are three ways to access the archie database: via a local
 client, interactive Telnet session or electronic mail. Each type of
 access is described below in the Using ARCHIE section.

5.4. Using ARCHIE

 The format of the parameters is given at the end of this section.
 Angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter; a vertical bar
 (|) indicates a choice of parameters.
 Note: A new version of the archie server (3.0) is now available. Some
 of the commands for interactive access and the e-mail interface are
 slightly different from previous versions of the server (2.11 and
 before). Command formats marked with a (+) are valid in version 3.0
 only, those marked with a (*) are acceptable only in previous
 versions.  To find out which version is installed at the server you
 wish to use, issue the version command.
 5.4.1. Using a local client:
    Usage of these clients is encouraged since they provide quick and
    easy non-interactive access to the archie servers, and thus,
    better performance of the servers and better response time for the
    user.
    Public domain clients for accessing archie servers are available
    for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, NeXT, Unix and X-Windows. The
    clients are available for anonymous FTP from the archie sites in
    the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients. All these
    platforms support a simple command line client. In addition, a
    graphical interface (called xarchie) is available for X-Windows.
    5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters
    When using a graphical interface, you access the archie functions
    by pressing mousse buttons. The results are displayed with
    selectable fields for further explorations.
    The basic archie client is a command with parameters that you
    enter on your local machine. With most versions of the archie
    client, if you type archie with no parameters, you will get a list
    of the possible parameters and a short description of each. The
    format of the command is:

EARN Staff [Page 29] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  archie    <-options> string | pattern                        |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    where the options are:
    o
       specifies an output file name to store the results (not
       available with all clients).
    l
       lists the result one match per line. This form is suitable for
       parsing by programs.
    t
       sorts the result inverted by date
    m#
       specifies maximum number of matches to return (# within the
       range 0 to 1000). The default value is 95.
    h archie-server
       specifies an archie server to send the query to; if this
       parameter is not given, then the query will be sent to the
       default archie server, if one is defined.
    L
       lists known servers and current default server.
    The following group of options determines the kind of search
    performed on the database. They are mutually exclusive.
    s
       a match occurs if the file/directory name contains string. The
       search is case insensitive.
    c
       as above, but the search is case sensitive.
    e
       string must EXACTLY match (including case) the file/directory
       name in the database. This is the DEFAULT search method.
    r
       searches the database using pattern. It contains special
       characters which must be interpreted before performing the

EARN Staff [Page 30] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

       search.
    There may be some slight differences in the options available with
    different clients on different platforms.
    The result is a list of FTP site addresses with files or
    directories matching the argument, the size of the file, its last
    modification date and its directory. By default, the list is
    sorted by host address. See the Examples section below for an
    example of archie output.
 5.4.2. Using Telnet:
    To access an archie server interactively, telnet to one of the
    existing servers (see the list of servers in the section How to
    get to ARCHIE above). At the login: prompt enter archie, the login
    procedure ends leaving the user at a archie> prompt. The server is
    ready for user requests. The following commands are available:
    exit, quit, bye
       exits archie.
    help  <command-name>
       invokes the on-line help. If issued with commandname, the help
       request is restricted to the specified topic. Pressing the
       RETURN key exits from the on-line help.
    list  <pattern>
       provides a list of the sites in the database and the time at
       which they were last updated. The optional parameter limits the
       list to sites matching pattern. The result is a list of site
       names, sites IP address and date of the last update in the
       database. The command list with no pattern will list all sites
       in the database (more than 1000 sites!). E.g.,
            list \.de$
       will list all German sites
    site(*)  site-name
       lists the directories and, recursively, the subdirectories, of
       site-name in the database. The result may be very long.
    whatis  string
       searches the database of software package descriptions for
       string. The search is case-insensitive.

EARN Staff [Page 31] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    prog  string  |  pattern
    find(+)  string  |  pattern
       searches the database for string or pattern which represents
       the name of the resource to be found in the database. Searches
       may be performed in a number of different ways specified in the
       variable search (set command) which also decides the
       interpretation of the parameter as string or pattern. The
       result is a list of FTP site addresses with matching entries,
       the size of the resource, its last modification date and the
       directory to find it. The number of hits is limited by the
       maxhits variable (set command). The result of prog can be
       sorted in different ways, depending on the value of the sortby
       variable (set command). By default, the variables search,
       maxhits and sortby are set to, respectively, exact match search
       on string, 1000 hits and unsorted resulting list. Typing the
       keyboard interrupt character during a search will abort it. The
       results up to that time are displayed. See the Examples section
       below for an example of the prog command and its results.
    mail  <email>  <,email2...>
       sends the result of the last command in a mail message to the
       specified e-mail address(es). If issued with no argument, the
       result is sent to the address specified in the variable mailto
       (set command).
    show  <variable>
       displays the value of the given variable name. If issued with
       no argument, it displays all variables. See the set command
       below for the possible variables.
    set  variable  value
       sets one of the archie's variables. Values of these variables
       affect how archie interacts with the user.
    Variables and values are:
    compress(+)  compress-method
       specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used
       before mailing a result with the mail command. The default is
       none.
    encode(+)  encode-method
       specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used
       before mailing a result with the mail command. This variable is
       ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.

EARN Staff [Page 32] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    mailto  email  <,email2 ...>
       specifies the e-mail address(es) to mail the result of the last
       command when mail is issued with no arguments.
    maxhits  number
       specifies the maximum number of matches prog will generate
       (within the range 0 to 1000). The default value is 1000.
    search  search-value
       determines the kind of search performed on the database by the
       command: prog string | pattern. search-values are:
       sub
          a parttial and case insensitive search is performed with
          string on the database, e.g.:
               "is" will match "islington" and "this" and "poison"
       subcase
          as above but the search is case sensitive, e.g.:
               "TeX" will match "LaTeX" but not "Latex"
       exact
          the parameter of prog (string) must EXACTLY match (including
          case) the string in the database. The fastest search method
          of all, and the default.
       regex
          pattern is interpreted before performing a search on the
          database.
       sortby  sort-value
          describes how to sort the result of prog. sort-values are:
          hostname
             on the FTP site address in lexical order.
          time
             by the modification date, most recent first.
          size
             by the size of the found files or directories, largest
             first.
          filename
             on file or directory name in lexical order.

EARN Staff [Page 33] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

          none
             unsorted (default)
          The reverse sorting orders from those described here are
          obtained by prepending r to the sortby value given. (e.g.,
          reverse hostname order hostname is rhostname).
       term  terminal-type   <number-of-rows  <number-of-columns>>
          tells  the archie  server what  type of  terminal  you are
          using, and optionally its size in rows and columns, e.g.:
               set term xterm 24 100
 5.4.3. Using electronic mail:
    Users limited to electronic mail connectivity can access the
    archie servers by sending mail to the domain address of one of the
    servers listed in the section How to get to ARCHIE (e.g.,
    archie@archie.ac.il).  The commands are sent in the body part of
    the mail.
    The electronic mail interface to an archie server recognizes a
    subset of the commands described in Using Telnet. Most useful
    commands and particularities to the e-mail interface are described
    below. If an empty message, or a message containing no valid
    requests is received, it will be considered to be a help request.
    Command lines begin in the first column. All lines that do not
    match a valid command are ignored. The Subject: line is processed
    as if it were part of the message body.
    help
       sends you the help file. The help command is exclusive, ie,
       other commands in the same message are ignored.
    path  return-address
       set mailto(+)  return-address
       specifies a return e-mail address different from that which is
       extracted from the message header. If you do not receive a
       reply from the archie server within several hours, you might
       need to add a path command to your message request.
    list  pattern  <pattern2 ...>
       provides a list of the sites in the database that match pattern
       and the time at which they were last updated. The result is a
       list with site names, sites IP address and date of the last
       update in the database.

EARN Staff [Page 34] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    site(*)  site-name
       lists the directories and, recursively, the subdirectories, of
       site-name in the database.
    whatis  string  <string2 ...>
       searches the database of software packages descriptions for
       each string.  The search is case insensitive.
    prog  pattern  <pattern2 ...>
       find(+)  pattern  <pattern2>
       searches the database for each interpretation of pattern which
       represents the name of a resource to be found in the database.
       If multiple patterns are placed on one line, in that case, the
       results will be mailed back in one message. If multiple prog
       lines appear, then multiple messages will be returned, one for
       each prog line. Results are sorted by FTP site address in
       lexical order. If pattern contains spaces, it must be quoted
       with single (') or double (") quotes. The search is case
       insensitive.
    compress(*)
       causes the result of the current request to be compressed and
       uuencoded. When you receive the reply, you should run it
       through uudecode. This will produce a .Z file. You can then run
       uncompress on this file and get the result of your request
    set compress(+)  compress-method
       specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used
       before mailing the result of the current request. The default
       is none.
    set encode(+)  encode-method
       specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used
       before mailing the result of the current request. This variable
       is ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.
       Note: set compress compress and set encode uuencode would
       produce the same result as the former compress command.
    quit
       nothing past this point is interpreted. Useful when a signature
       is automatically appended at the end of your mail messages.
    Description of pattern
    A pattern describes a character string including characters which
    take a special meaning. The special meaning is lost when "\" is
    put before the character. The special characters are:

EARN Staff [Page 35] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

     .
       (period) this is the wildcard character that replaces any other
       character, e.g., "...." will match any 4 character string.
    ^
       (caret) if "^" appears at the beginning of the pattern, then
       the searched string must start with the substring following the
       "^". If it occurs anywhere else in the pattern it is regarded
       as non-special, e.g.:
            "^efghi" will match "efghi" or "efghijlk" but not
            "abcefghi"
    $
       (dollar) if "$" appears at the end of the pattern, then the
       searched string must end with the substring preceding the "$".
       If occurring anywhere else in the pattern, it is regarded as
       non-special, e.g.:
            "efghi$" will match "efghi" or "abcdefghi" but not
            "efghijkl"

5.5. Examples

 If you are using an archie client, and enter the command:
      archie -s eudora
 or if you send, by e-mail or during a Telnet session, the command:
      prog eudora
 or
      find eudora
 then archie will send you the following results:
 Host ftp.ascii.co.jp    (133.152.1.1)
 Last updated 03:38  8 Aug 1993
  Location: /pub/MAC
    DIRECTORY  drwxrwxr-x 2048 bytes 00:00  6 May 1992  eudora
 Host ftp.ascii.co.jp    (133.152.1.1)
 Last updated 03:38  8 Aug 1993

EARN Staff [Page 36] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  Location: /pub/MAC/eudora
   FILE  -r--r--r-- 281139 bytes 00:00 21 Oct 1991 eudora1.2.2.sit.hqx
 Host ftp.ci.ua.pt    (192.80.21.201)
 Last updated 04:53  9 Aug 1993
  Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
    FILE  -rw-r--r-- 438 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993  Eudora1.3.readme
 Host ftp.ci.ua.pt    (192.80.21.201)
 Last updated 04:53  9 Aug 1993
  Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
    FILE  -rw-r--r-- 278912 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993  Eudora1.3.sit.bin
 etc.
 If you send the command list \.de$ by e-mail or in a Telnet session,
 then you will get the following results:
 alice.fmi.uni-passau.de          132.231.1.180  12:31  8 Aug 1993
 askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de       129.13.200.33  12:25  8 Aug 1993
 athene.uni-paderborn.de           131.234.2.32  15:21  6 Aug 1993
 bseis.eis.cs.tu-bs.de             134.169.33.1  00:18 31 Jul 1993
 clio.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de        134.99.128.3  12:10  8 Aug 1993
 cns.wtza-berlin.de                141.16.244.4  16:08 31 Jul 1993
 etc.
 If you send the command whatis compression by e-mail or in a Telnet
 session, then you will get the following results:
 RFC 468      Braden, R.T. FTP data compression 1973 March 8; 5p.
 arc          PC compression program
 deltac       Image compression using delta modulation
 spl          Splay tree compression routines
 squeeze      A file compression program
 uncrunch     Uncompression program
 unsqueeze    Uncompression programs

5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE

 However you communicate with the archie server, on-line help is
 available.
 If you have any questions about archie, write to the Archie Group,
 Bunyip Information Systems Inc. at info@bunyip.com.

EARN Staff [Page 37] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to
 archie-group@bunyip.com. In addition, the database administrator at a
 particular archie server can be contacted at
 archie-admin@address.of.archie.server, e.g.:
 archie-admin@archie.ac.il.
 Mailing list: archie-people@bunyip.com
 To subscribe send a mail to: archie-people-request@bunyip.com
 Archie was developed by Alan Emtage, Peter Deutsch, and Bill Heelan
 from the McGill University Computing Center, Canada. Now archie is
 supported by Bunyip Information System Inc., Canada.

6.1. WHOIS

6.1. What is WHOIS

 WHOIS provides directory service to network users. This service is a
 way of finding e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone
 numbers. It may also deliver information about networks, networking
 organizations, domains and sites.
 The main database of networking-related names (organizations, sites,
 networks, people, etc.) is maintained by the Internet Registration
 Service (InterNIC). Actually, the names of the administrative and
 technical contacts for registered domains are automatically entered
 into the database when domain or IP number applications are processed
 by the Internet coordination authority. Each entry of the database
 has a handle (a unique identifier), a name, a record type, and
 various other fields depending on the type of record. This database
 will be used as an example in the descriptions below.
 Before April 1, 1993, the Network Information Center (NIC) of the
 Defense Data Network (DDN) was the Internet coordination authority
 and, therefore, maintained the database (known as the NIC database).
 The NIC database is now restricted to information about the .mil
 domain. Many documents still refer to these names.
 Many academic sites maintain their own database to offer information
 about their staff members and students.
 In its current implementation, WHOIS has some limitations which
 prevent it from becoming an efficient directory service for a large
 volume of information and numerous requests: the various WHOIS
 servers have no knowledge of each other, a database is maintained at
 each server site, and, finally, new functionalities have been
 implemented locally at various sites and not propagated. A new
 extended protocol, WHOIS++, is being specified to improve the current

EARN Staff [Page 38] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 service. WHOIS++ will include local enhancements to the WHOIS
 service, an improved query syntax and its architecture will allow a
 real distributed directory service for the entire Internet.
 This new protocol for directory services will be made available
 shortly.

6.2. Who can use WHOIS

 WHOIS is available to users on the international TCP/IP network (the
 Internet).
 A WHOIS server is accessible across the network from a user program
 running on local machines or via an interactive Telnet session to the
 site which hosts the server.
 In addition, the InterNIC offers an electronic mail interface to the
 database it maintains, allowing users not on the Internet or users
 with electronic mail only to access this information. This type of
 access is described below in the Using WHOIS section.
 In general, WHOIS servers should only be used for isolated queries
 about specific information. Typically, it is not acceptable to make
 an extended series of queries to obtain large sections of the
 directory.  Such a strategy is unfair both because of excessive
 consumption of server resources, and because the directory
 information belongs to individuals. In particular, extracting lists
 of people for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

6.3. How to get to WHOIS

 There are many WHOIS servers throughout the network and a
 comprehensive list would be too long to be included here. A WHOIS
 server offers information about the organization to which it belongs:
 it doesn't share a common directory with other WHOIS servers and
 doesn't know either where to find information about other
 institutions.

6.4. Using WHOIS

 WHOIS has become the familiar name of the user program for accessing
 a WHOIS database, although NICNAME is the original name.
 In the following, angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.

EARN Staff [Page 39] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 6.4.1. Using a local client:
    Unix computers have a native whois command. On non-Unix machines,
    ask your system administrator whether your computer has it or not.
    This command searches the database on the specified site for entry
    which contains identifier. The format is:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  whois     <-h site-name> identifier                          |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    where:
    site-name
       is the domain address of the site which hosts the database you
       want to query (e.g., whois.internic.net). On some
       installations, the default value is still set to the old NIC
       database site (nic.ddn.mil).
    identifier
       is a name (person, host, domain or network), an IP number or a
       handle.
    Special characters may be used in identifier to specify the
    search:
     .
       before identifier will cause a name-only search.
    !
       before identifier will cause a handle-only search.
     ... or .
       after identifier will cause a partial search: everything
       starting with identifier will match.
    @
       in identifier will cause a search on the e-mail addresses.

before identifier will return the entire membership list of the

       entry that matches identifier (e.g., a site and its registered
       users).

EARN Staff [Page 40] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    %
       before identifier will return only the membership list of the
       entry that matches identifier (e.g., the registered users of a
       site).
    The special characters may be used together.
    The results are displayed in one of 2 ways:
  • a full detailed display for a single match,
  • a list of summary lines for multiple matches.
    In both cases, the handle is shown in parentheses after the name.
 6.4.2. Using Telnet:
    To access the InterNIC database interactively, telnet to the
    InterNIC site (whois.internic.net). No login is required.
    Other WHOIS databases may have a Telnet access and offer most of
    the functions below (e.g., whois.ripe.net which hosts the WHOIS
    database of the European IP Networks).
    In the following, CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable
    abbreviation; angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.
    WHOIS
       invokes the information retrieval program.
    ?
       displays a short on-line help.
    HElp
       accesses the full on-line help.
    Q, QUIT, RETURN key
       exits WHOIS
    <keyword> identifier
       searches the database for an entry which contains identifier.
       The default action is to do a broad search, looking for matches
       in many fields: handle, name, nicknames, hostname, IP number,
       etc, and finding all record types. keyword may be used to
       narrow the search to a specific record type.
    keyword may be one of:

EARN Staff [Page 41] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    PErson
       limits the search to persons.
    DOmain
       limits the search to domains (e.g., DO EARN.NET).
    HOst
       limits the search to hosts (e.g., HO PRINCETON).
    NEtwork
       limits the search to networks (e.g., NE EBONE).
    Organization
       limits the search to organizations (e.g., O CREN).
    NAme
       same as leading '.' in identifier.
    HAndle
       same as '!' in identifier.
    PArtial
       same as trailing '.' in identifier.
    Mailbox
       same as '@' in identifier.
    EXPand
       same as '*' in identifier.
    SUBdisplay
       same as '%' in identifier.
    Full or '='
       shows detailed display for each match.
    SUMmary or '$'
       shows summary always, even if just one match.
    Special characters may be used in identifier to specify the
    search:
     .
       before identifier will cause a name-only search.
    !
       before identifier will cause a handle-only search.

EARN Staff [Page 42] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

     ... or .
       after identifier will cause a partial search: everything
       starting with identifier will match.
    @
       in identifier will cause a search on the e-mail addresses.

before identifier will return the entire membership list of the

       entry that match identifier (e.g., a site and its registered
       users).
    %
       before identifier will return only the membership list of the
       entry that matches identifier (e.g., the registered users of a
       site).
    ~
       before identifier will return the entry that matches identifier
       only, no membership list.
    The special characters may be used together.
    Except if  Full or SUMmary are  specified, the results are
    displayed in one of 2 ways:
  • a full detailed display for a single match,
  • a list of summary lines for multiple matches.
    In all cases, the handle is shown in parenthesis after the name.
 6.4.3. Using electronic mail:
    Users limited to electronic mail connectivity can send requests to
    the database maintained at the InterNIC by sending mail to
    mailserv@internic.net. The commands are sent in the Subject:
    field. The body part of the mail is ignored except if the Subject:
    line is empty.  In that case, only the first line is interpreted.
    This electronic mail interface recognizes all commands described
    in Using Telnet. Requests should be prefixed with the word WHOIS.
    Requests are processed automatically once a day.

EARN Staff [Page 43] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

6.5. Examples

 If you are using a local client, and enter the command:
      whois \!EARN...       (remark: "\" is an escape character)
 or if you send by e-mail the command:
      whois !EARN...
 then you will get the following results:
      EARN (EARN-HST)   SEINE.EARN.NET                193.52.216.1
      European Academic Research Network (EARN-DOM)       EARN.NET
      To obtain detailed information on the second item, enter or send
      the command:
           whois EARN-DOM
      then you will get the following result:
           European Academic Research Network (EARN-DOM)
              EARN Office
              PSI - Batiment 211
              91405 Orsay CEDEX
              FRANCE
              Domain Name: EARN.NET
              Administrative Contact:
                 Bovio, Daniele  (DB355)  hi@EARNCC.EARN.NET
                 +33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 6683
              Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
                 Grange, Nadine  (NG4)  grange@EARNCC.EARN.NET
                 +33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 6683
              Record last updated on 15-Dec-93.
              Domain servers in listed order:
              SEINE.EARN.NET               193.52.216.1
              DNS.NIS.GARR.IT              192.12.192.5,131.114.2.5
              LUMIERE.CIRCE.FR             130.84.8.14
      For a partial search, enter:
           whois hi@ear...

EARN Staff [Page 44] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

      then you will get the following result:
           Bovio, Daniele (DB355)          hi@EARNCC.EARN.NET
              EARN
              EARN Office
              PSI - BP Batiment 211
              91405 ORSAY CEDEX, France
              FR
              +33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 6683

6.6. Learning more about WHOIS

 The WHOIS service is documented in an Internet Request For Comments
 (RFC 1400).
 If you have any questions about WHOIS write to action@internic.net.
 Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to
 action@internic.net.

7. X.500

7.1. What is X.500

 X.500 is an OSI (Open System Information) based directory services
 protocol designed by the CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone
 Consultative Committee).
 X.500 provides distributed directory services to network users. The
 X.500 directory specifies a model for connecting directory services
 to form one distributed global directory. Each directory service
 holds a part of the global database and the directory information is
 made available via a server (called a Directory System Agent - DSA).
 The database is maintained locally. From the user point of view, the
 entire directory is accessible from the local server.
 While most of the information available today via X.500 is about
 people and organizations, the design of the X.500 directory is also
 suitable for storing information about other entities (or objects),
 such as network resources, applications or hardware. Several projects
 are underway which utilize these directory capabilities (e.g., the
 Internet RFCs (Request For Comments) are listed in the global
 directory).
 Each item (entry) in the X.500 directory describes one object (e.g.,
 a person, a network resource, an organization) and has a
 Distinguished Name - DN (a unique identifier). It consists of a
 collection of attributes (e.g., last name, organization name, e-

EARN Staff [Page 45] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 mail,...- for a person).  The information held in the X.500 directory
 (or Directory Information Base - DIB) is arranged hierarchically.
 This organization is called the Directory Information Tree (DIT). At
 the top-level is the root entry (the World), then the country level,
 then the organization level, and, eventually, the people, the
 resources, etc., at the bottom-level of the hierarchy.

7.2. Who can use X.500

 Although X.500 is part of the OSI standard definition, OSI access is
 not necessary to use the directory services. Many X.500 services are
 available on the Internet. In addition, users on any network can
 access the X.500 directory by electronic mail. See the section Using
 X.500 below for details.

7.3. How to get to X.500

 There are three ways to access the X.500 services: via a local
 client, interactive session (Telnet or X.25 access) or electronic
 mail. Each type of access is described below in the Using X.500
 section.
 In addition, other network tools (e.g., WWW and Gopher) provide
 access to X.500 directory services through gateways.
 Accessing a remote client is an easy way to start querying the X.500
 directory. Some sites allow public access via Telnet or X.25 to a
 client. Public access user interfaces are available at:

EARN Staff [Page 46] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  Telnet (login)               Public X.25 (login)  Country    |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  jethro.ucc.su.oz.au (fred)                        Australia  |
 |  elem4.vub.ac.be (dua)          222100611          Belgium    |
 |  login.dkuug.dk (ds)                               Denmark    |
 |  nic.funet.fi (dua)                                Finland    |
 |                                 20800603053201     France     |
 |                    (login: dua, password: ucom.x)  France     |
 |                                 26245050230303     Germany    |
 |  ashe.cs.tcd.ie (de)                               Ireland    |
 |  jolly.nis.garr.it (de or fred) 22225010083212     Italy      |
 |  zoek.nic.surfnet.nl (zoek)                        Netherlands|
 |  elc1.mat.torun.edu.pl (de or dish)                Poland     |
 |  chico.rediris.es (directorio)  2142160234013      Spain      |
 |  hypatia.umdc.umu.se (de)       240374810306       Sweden     |
 |  nic.switch.ch (dua)            22847971014540     Switzerland|
 |  paradise.ulcc.ac.uk (dua)      23421920014853     Paradise   |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 Paradise is a European project to encourage the use of X.500 in
 European countries.
 To connect to one of these sites, select an access method (Telnet or
 X.25) and at the login: prompt type the specified login, if required.

7.4. Using X.500

 X.500 supports data management functions (addition, modification and
 deletion of entries) and powerful lookup capabilities. The use of
 X.500 is primarily for its lookup capabilities, ie, querying a
 database for information on a person (postal address, telephone
 number, e-mail address, etc.). The basic fields for searching are the
 person's name, the name of the person's organization (and department
 within the organization) and the country.
 In the following, angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter;
 a vertical (|) indicates a choice of parameters.
 7.4.1. Using a local client:
    In the X.500 world, a local client is called a Directory User
    Agent (DUA) Public domain and commercial DUAs are available for
    numerous platforms ranging from mainframes to personal computers.
    For a comprehensive list of DUAs, their description and where to

EARN Staff [Page 47] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    find them, consult the Internet document RFC 1292 - A Catalog of
    Available X.500 Implementations.
    Available DUAs range from simple line commands to sophisticated
    graphical user interfaces which require a pointing device.
 7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25:
    3 categories of user interfaces might be available at the remote
    site:
  • line-oriented: de, dish, fred
  • menu-driven: sd (formerly known as widget)
  • X-Windows-based: Xdi, Xlookup (or xlu), pod
    Capabilities of these DUAs range from basic search facilities to
    full X.500 functionality.
    de (directory enquiries) is recommended for novice users since it
    is a very simple user-interface. It has been designed to run as a
    public access DUA and is accessible from any kind of terminal. It
    supports the basic X.500 functions: read, search, list. The Simple
    query mode is suitable for those who are new to querying the X.500
    directory.
    de
       invokes the X.500 interrogation user-interface.
    q
       exits de.

EARN Staff [Page 48] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    ?<topic>
       displays the on-line help on the specified topic or general
       help.
    ^C
       (Ctrl-C) is the interrupt character. It aborts a search in
       progress or resets the current query specification.

(asterisk) will list all entries of the specified field. It is

       also the wildcard character and can replace any other character
       in a name. It can appears anywhere in the name, e.g.: smit* or
       *smit* are valid string formats.

resets the default value to a blank string.

    When de is invoked, the user is requested to fill in 4 fields to
    specify a request. In all fields, the value from the previous
    request is the default value. Press the RETURN key to accept it,
    or enter a new value.  All searches are case insensitive.
    The four fields to be filled in are:
    Person's name
       Wildcard characters may be used anywhere in the name. All
       matching names will be listed. Typing only "*" will match all
       people of the specified department or organization. If this
       field is blank, the search will be on department or
       organization only.
    Department name
       the name (or an acronym) of the department in the organization
       where the person works. Wildcard characters may be used
       anywhere in the name.  Typing only "*" will match all
       departments. If no person's name has been entered, details on
       the department are displayed, otherwise, the search is carried
       out with the selected name. If no department name is given, all
       departments will be searched. This field could be omitted in
       small organizations.
    Organization name
       the name  (or an acronym)  of the  organization where the
       person works.  Wildcard characters  may be used anywhere  in
       the name. Typing  only "*" will match all organizations. If no
       person's name or department name has been entered, details on
       the organization are displayed, otherwise, the search is
       carried out with the selected name.

EARN Staff [Page 49] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    Country name
       the name of the country where the person works. Typing "*" will
       list all countries. The country name could be the 2-letter
       country code (e.g., DK stands for Denmark), the name or a part
       of it without wildcards (e.g., nether instead of The
       Netherlands).
    If a large number of matching entries are found, they are listed
    so that the user can select one entry to get further details.
 7.4.3. Using electronic mail:
    The Norwegian networking organization (UNINETT) offers an e-mail
    interface to X.500. To use it, send a mail message to:
    Directory@UNINETT.NO with the word find in the Subject: field. The
    body part contains the search request, one per message.
    The format of the search request is:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  find      <person-name>  <: org-name  <;  country-name>>  |  |
    |            <; country-name>                                   |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    If org-name and country-name are omitted, the sender's
    organization name and country name are used as default values. The
    mail interface guesses these values from the From: field of your
    mail, so the results can be surprising if your address ends with
    .bitnet!
    "*" (asterisk) is the wildcard character and can replace any other
    characters in any name. It can appear anywhere in the name.
    The result of the query is sent back in a mail message. The search
    is case insensitive.
    Note: To avoid overloading the directory service, users are not
    allowed to search for a person without selecting an organization.
    To receive a help file, send the word help instead of a find
    command.

7.5. Examples

 Using de, you can search for the Anthropoloy department of the
 University College of London in United Kingdom, with the following
 request:

EARN Staff [Page 50] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

      Person's name, q to quit, * to browse, ? for help
      :-
      Department name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- a*
      Organisation name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- ucl
      Country name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- uk
 A few entries match the selected department, all are listed for
 further selection:
      United Kingdom
        University College London
      Got the following matches.  Please select one from the list
      by typing the number corresponding to the entry you want.
      United Kingdom
        University College London
            1 A.U.T. Office
            2 American Institute for Foreign Study
            3 Anatomy and Developmental Biology
            4 Anthropology
            5 Audio Visual Centre
      Department name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- 4
      United Kingdom
        University College London
          Anthropology
              Telephone Number      +44 71-387-7050 x2455
              fax                   +44 71 380 7728
 If you are looking for Erik Lawaetz from UNI-C in Denmark, you can
 enter the following request (default values come from a previous
 request):
      Person's name, q to quit, * to browse, ? for help
      :- law*
      Department name, * to browse, <CR> to search all depts, ?
      for help
      :-
      Organisation name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- uni-c
      Country name, * to browse, ? for help
      :- dk
 One entry matches the selected criteria, details are displayed:

EARN Staff [Page 51] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

      Denmark
        UNI-C
            Erik Lawaetz
              postalAddress         UNI-C
                                    DTH
                                    Bygning 305
                                    DK-2800 Lyngby
              Telephone Number      +45 45 93 83 55
                                    +45 42 88 39 99 x2018
              fax                   +45 45 93 02 20
              electronic mail       Erik.Lawaetz@uni-c.dk
 If you send mail to   Directory@UNINETT.NO   with the request:
      find geir ped* : *oslo ; no
 you'll get the following result:
  1. —————————————————————-
 This message is in response to your request to the directory to
 find
                          geir ped* : *oslo ; no
 This is  interpreted as a  request to find  a person with  a name
 matching  "geir  ped*"  in  an organisation  with  name  matching
 "*oslo" in a country with a name matching "no".
 There   were   8  organisations   with   a   name  matching   the
 organizational  name you  specified.  Within those  organisations
 there were 7  persons that had a name matching  the personal name
 you specified.  Directory information for the  located persons is
 shown below.
 Geir Pedersen : Universitetet i Oslo ; Norway
   Alternate        Geir Kenneth Pedersen
   Alternate        Geir K. Pedersen
   E-Mail (RFC)     Geir.Pedersen@usit.uio.no
   E-Mail (X.400)   /G=geir/S=pedersen/OU=usit/O=uio/PRMD=uninett/
                    ADMD= /C=no/
   Postal Address   Postboks 1059 - Blindern
                    0316 Oslo 3
                    NORWAY
   Phone            +47-22-852478
   Phone            +47-22-852470 (front-office)
   Fax-phone        +47-22-852730
   Description      Project leader for UNINETTs X.500 projects

EARN Staff [Page 52] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

   User ID          geirp
   Favorite Drink   Farris
   Street Address   Gaustadalleen 23
   Home Address     Gaustadveien 17A
                    0372 Oslo 3
                    NORWAY
   See also         Geir Pedersen : UNINETT ; Norway
   Entry updated    Tue Jun 15 11:51:31 1993
  1. —————————————————————-
 and 6 other entries.

7.6. Learning more about X.500

 Several Internet RFC documents deal with X.500:
    RFC 1292  A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations.
    RFC 1308  Executive Introduction to Directory  Services Using the
              X.500 Protocol,
    RFC 1309  Technical  Overview  of Directory  Services  Using  the
              X.500 Protocol,
 The official source of information on X.500 is the X.500
 recommendation published by the CCITT (Blue Book, Volume VIII -
 Fascicle VIII.8, Data Communication Networks Directory,
 Recommendations X.500-X.521, CCITT, 1988, ISBN 92-61-03731-3). This
 document is also available electronically: send the command GET
 ITU-5233 to itudoc@itu.ch or consult the ITU document store via
 Gopher to gopher.itu.ch. This is not intended for the casual user!

8. NETFIND

8.1. What is NETFIND

 NETFIND is an Internet user directory tool. It provides a simple
 Internet white pages directory facility.
 Given the name of a person on the Internet and a rough description of
 where the person works, Netfind attempts to locate telephone and
 electronic mailbox information about the person. It does so using a
 seed database of domains and hosts in the network.
 Netfind finds information about people through the Internet protocols
 SMTP and finger. If the person being sought is at a site that is not
 directly connected to the Internet (e.g., the site is connected only

EARN Staff [Page 53] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 through a mail forwarding gateway), Netfind informs the user that the
 person can not be found.
 Due to the dynamic nature of Netfind's search procedures and
 variations in Internet availability, different results can be
 obtained for the same search on different occasions.
 The Netfind software can only run on Suns running SunOS 4.0 or more
 recent.

8.2. Who can use NETFIND

 You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) in
 order to use Netfind. Moreover, Netfind can only find information on
 users who are on the Internet.
 There is no e-mail access to Netfind.

8.3. How to get to NETFIND

 You can access Netfind through software at your site (local access),
 or you can use Telnet to access it at one of the following hosts
 (remote access) and log in as netfind, no password is needed.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  Host                            Country                      |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  archie.au                       Australia                    |
 |  netfind.anu.edu.au              Australia                    |
 |  netfind.ee.mcgill.ca            Canada                       |
 |  malloco.ing.puc.cl              Chile                        |
 |  netfind.vslib.cz                Czech Republic               |
 |  monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk            England                      |
 |  nic.nm.kr                       Korea                        |
 |  lincoln.technet.sg              Singapore                    |
 |  nic.uakom.sk                    Slovakia                     |
 |  bruno.cs.colorado.edu           USA                          |
 |  ds.internic.net                 USA                          |
 |  mudhoney.micro.umn.edu          USA                          |
 |  netfind.oc.com                  USA                          |
 |  redmont.cis.uab.edu             USA                          |
 |  dino.conicit.ve                 Venezuela                    |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

EARN Staff [Page 54] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

8.4. Using NETFIND

 To use Netfind, you give it the name of a person and keywords
 indicating where that person works. After you specify a search,
 Netfind looks in its seed database to find domains matching the
 specified keywords. If there is more than one matching domain,
 Netfind displays the list of matching domains, and asks you to select
 up to three to search. If the keys you specified match more than 100
 domains, Netfind will list some of the matching domains/organizations
 and ask you to form a more specific search. You can use any of the
 parts of an organization's name (or any of the components of its
 domain name) as keys in searches. Using more than one key implies the
 logical AND of the keys. Specifying too many keys may cause searches
 to fail.
 When it completes the search (or when interrupted by <circ>C),
 Netfind summarizes the search results. The summary includes problems
 searching remote domains, information about the most promising e-mail
 address for the person being sought (if available), and information
 about when and where the person most recently/is currently logged in
 (if available).  If more than one person is located by a search, the
 summary does not include information about e-mail targets and most
 recent/current logins (since only the user can decide which person
 was the correct one)
 8.4.1. Local access:
    The format of the Netfind command is:
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  netfind   <options>  name-keyword  place-keywords            |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    where the options are:
  1. h

tells Netfind to skip the domain search phase, and immediately

       begin searching individual machines found in the seed database.
       This option exists for measurement purposes. It is not of much
       use to casual users.
  1. s

will disable usage of the SMTP protocol during searches. This

       option is mainly useful for measurement purposes. Without this
       protocol, searches will begin producing finger output slightly
       sooner, but will often search less useful machines, generate

EARN Staff [Page 55] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

       more Internet load, and fail to find information for users at
       sites that do not support finger (such as many companies).
  1. t

will report how many timeouts occurred. The -T option will set

       the timeout interval to the specified number of seconds. It may
       be necessary to use this option to increase the timeout value
       for intercontinental searches.
  1. D

sets the maximum number of domains that Netfind will search at

       once. The default is 3. While it may seem convenient to set a
       high value for this number, we suggest you do not do this. The
       search will actually proceed faster (and waste less Internet
       bandwidth) if a small number of well chosen domains are
       searched.
  1. H

sets the maximum number of machines that will be searched by

       Netfind.  The default value is 50. Again, we suggest that you
       do not set this value higher.
  1. m

displays measurement information. If no filename is specified,

       measurements are output to stderr. The packet count estimates
       are usually exaggerated, because they make pessimistic
       assumptions about the state of the Domain Naming System.
  1. d

allows you to turn on various classes of debugging output (all

       of which are output to stderr), using a letter corresponding to
       each one.  Debugging output is enabled using the -d option with
       a list of letters, e.g., -dslf. The following classes/letters
       exist:
       c:
          display control messages (check if the program has reached a
          specified point)
          f: display finger related messages
       h:
          list machine names found in the seed database
       l:
          display lock related messages (when entering monitors)

EARN Staff [Page 56] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

       m:
          display messages about mail protocol (SMTP)
       n:
          display messages about network failures
       r:
          display hosts matched from the seed database that were
          rejected from searches because of search scope selection
       s:
          display system call related messages
       t:
          display thread related messages
       A:
          convert the above flags to mean their complement (example
          -dAt means produce all debug output except that for
          threads).
       The letters that are most likely to be of interest to the
       casual user are f, m, and n. By default, these options are
       enabled. Specifying any of these three flags with -d on the
       command line will disable them (hence, the -d option toggles
       the default behavior of each of the flags).
       The name keyword specifies the person being sought by first,
       last, or login name (only one name can be specified).
       The place keywords describe where the person works, by either
       the name of the institution or the city/state/country. If you
       know the institution's domain name (e.g., cs.colorado.edu,
       where there are host names like brazil.cs.colorado.edu) you can
       specify it as keys without the dots (e.g., cs colorado edu).
       The host parts of domain names (brazil) cannot be used as
       keywords. Keys are case insensitive and may be specified in any
       order, although using a very common key (like university) first
       will cause internal buffers to overflow and some domains to be
       missed.
       Using more than one key implies the logical and of the keys.
       Specifying too many keys may cause searches to fail. If this
       happens, try specifying fewer keys.

EARN Staff [Page 57] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 8.4.2. Remote access:
    Telnet to one of the remote Netfind sites (see How to get to
    NETFIND, above) and log in as netfind. No password is necessary.
    You will get the following menu:
         Top level choices:
                 1. Help
                 2. Search
                 3. Seed database lookup
                 4. Options
                 5. Quit (exit server)
    If you select Search, you will be given an opportunity to enter a
    name keyword and place keywords.

8.5. Examples

 To find the address of e-mail address of Nadine Grange, who works at
 the EARN office at CIRCE in France, you could try the keywords:
      nadine circe france
 Since there are more than three domains that fit the place keywords,
 you are asked to pick a few. The search proceeds, using the domains
 of your choice:
  1. —————————————————————-
 Please select at most 3 of the following domains to search:
 0. circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsay ce
 1. ciripa.circe.fr (centre inter-regional de calcul electronique, c
 2. dnet.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, ors
 3. ibmmail.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
 4. obspm.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, or
 5. oecd.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, ors
 6. phy.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsa
 7. ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsa
 8. cth.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
 9. lure.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
 10. lps.cth.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifi
 Enter selection (e.g., 2 0 1) --> 0
 ( 1) check_name: checking domain circe.fr.  Level = 0
 Search of domains completed.  Proceeding to search of hosts.
 ( 3) check_name: checking host loire.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 ( 4) check_name: checking host solrt.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 ( 5) check_name: checking host groucho.circe.fr.  Level = 0

EARN Staff [Page 58] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 ( 1) check_name: checking host rsovax.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 ( 2) check_name: checking host ventura.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 ( 1) do_connect: Finger service not available on host rsovax.circe.
 ( 1) check_name: checking host earn-ng.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 ( 4) check_name: checking host luregate.circe.fr.  Level = 0
 SYSTEM: loire.circe.fr
   Login name: nadine                    In real life: Nadine Grange
   Directory: /home/nadine               Shell: /bin/csh
   On since Sep  7 08:48:05 on ttyp0     4 days 21 hours Idle Time
   New mail received Sun Sep 12 00:00:08 1993;
     unread since Fri Sep 10 11:53:17 1993
   No Plan.
   Login name: nadine                    In real life: Nadine Grange
   Directory: /home/nadine               Shell: /bin/csh
   On since Sep  7 09:17:09 on ttyp6     1 day 12 hours Idle Time
 SUMMARY:
 - "nadine" is currently logged in from
   loire.circe.fr, since Sep  7 09:17:09.
 - The most promising email address for "nadine"
   based on the above search is
   nadine@loire.circe.fr.
  1. —————————————————————
 Note that Netfind found only an Internet address on a Unix machine.

8.6. Learning more about NETFIND

 The remote access version of Netfind has a large Help section. There
 is also a set of frequently asked questions available with the
 software release, in the Doc directory. These questions cover
 Functionality, Methodology, Network and Remote Site Load, Privacy,
 Future Directions, and Related Work.
 A noteworthy article on Netfind is:
 Experience with a Semantically Cognizant Internet White Pages
 Directory Tool, by M. F. Schwartz and P. G. Tsirigotis, Journal of
 Internetworking Research and Experience, March 1991, pp. 23-50.
 This publication discusses the research principles, performance, and
 scope measurements of Netfind, and compares it with other white pages
 facilities.
 There is a mailing list for Netfind users (for software updates and
 other discussions). To be added to the list, send an e-mail message

EARN Staff [Page 59] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 to netfind-users-request@cs.colorado.edu with the body (not subject
 line) subscribe netfind-users

9. TRICKLE

9.1. What is TRICKLE

 TRICKLE is a service which will send you files on request or by
 subscription. TRICKLE works with various anonymous FTP sites
 (computers in the Internet network that allow public access and
 retrieval of software and files). It provides a quick and easy
 alternative to FTP, whether or not you have access to the Internet.
 There are several TRICKLE servers throughout the world that cooperate
 to distribute the files efficiently. To request files, the user
 issues commands to the nearest TRICKLE server, which delivers the
 software either from its local cache disk, from the cache of another
 TRICKLE server, or from an FTP site that holds the software.

9.2. Who can use TRICKLE

 There are currently TRICKLE servers at the following addresses:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  Location    EARN/BITNET        Internet                      |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  Austria     TRICKLE@AWIWUW11   TRICKLE@awiwuw11.wu-wien.ac.at|
 |  Colombia    TRICKLE@UNALCOL    TRICKLE@unalcol.unal.edu.co   |
 |  France      TRICKLE@FRMOP11    TRICKLE@frmop11.cnusc.fr      |
 |  Germany     TRICKLE@DEARN      TRICKLE@vm.gmd.de             |
 |  Israel      TRICKLE@TAUNIVM    TRICKLE@vm.tau.ac.il          |
 |  Italy       TRICKLE@IMIPOLI    TRICKLE@imipoli.cdc.polimi.it |
 |  Netherlands TRICKLE@HEARN      TRICKLE@hearn.nic.surfnet.nl  |
 |  Poland      TRICKLE@PLEARN     TRICKLE@plearn.edu.pl         |
 |  Sweden      TRICKLE@SEARN      TRICKLE@searn.sunet.se        |
 |  Turkey      TRICKLE@TREARN     TRICKLE@ege.edu.tr            |
 |  Turkey      TRICKLE@TRMETU     TRICKLE@3090.cc.metu.edu.tr   |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 When you send a command to a TRICKLE server, it either executes the
 command or sends you a message with the address of the TRICKLE server
 for your area.
 The files which are available from TRICKLE are organized in main
 directories which contain many subdirectories. The main directories

EARN Staff [Page 60] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 which are currently available are:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 | Directory Source FTP Site        Contents                     |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 | MSDOS     oak.oakland.edu        Large MS-DOS software archive|
 | MISC      oak.oakland.edu        Software for VM, VMS, Unix   |
 | SIGM      oak.oakland.edu        SIG/M CP/M archive           |
 | PC-BLUE   oak.oakland.edu        PC-BLUE MS-DOS archive       |
 | CPM       oak.oakland.edu        CP/M software archive        |
 | ARCHIVES  oak.oakland.edu        Various discussion group arc.|
 | UNIX-C    oak.oakland.edu        Unix and C code software arc.|
 | MACINTOS  oak.oakland.edu        Apple Macintosh software arc.|
 | OS2       2tp-os2.nmsu.edu       Large archive of OS/2 sw     |
 | AMIGA     nic.funet.fi           Large Amiga collection       |
 | KERMIT    watsun.cc.columbia.edu Kermit network software      |
 | TEX       rusinfo.rus.uni-stuttgart.de TeX software and fonts |
 | WUARCHIVE wuarchive.wustl.edu    MS-DOS and others            |
 | EXPO-MIT  export.lcs.mit.edu     Unix and others              |
 | UUNET     ftp.uu.net             Unix and others              |
 | SUMEX-AIM sumex-aim.stanford.edu Macintosh and others         |
 | GARFIELD  garfield.catt.ncsu.edu Multimedia (pictures/sounds) |
 | X11       export.lcs.mit.edu     X-Windows software distrib.  |
 | LINUX     nic.funet.fi           Linux system software dist.  |
 | VM-CMS    ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu    VM/CMS utilities             |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 Not all directories are available at all servers. If your closest
 server does not provide the directory of your choice, you can use any
 other TRICKLE for the missing directory. If your closest server is
 temporarily unavailable, you can use any other TRICKLE instead.

9.3. How to get to TRICKLE

 You send commands to TRICKLE by electronic mail. The commands should
 be in the body of the mail message, one command per line. Any number
 of commands (up to your daily command limit) may be placed in one
 message.  Users on the EARN/Bitnet network may also send commands to
 TRICKLE by interactive message.

9.4. Using TRICKLE

 All commands begin with a slash (/). Note that the angle brackets
 (<>) are part of the command, not an indication of an optional
 parameter.

EARN Staff [Page 61] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Use the /PDDIR command to obtain directory listings.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  /PDDIR                                                       |
 |                                                               |
 |  /PDDIR    <dirname>                                          |
 |                                                               |
 |  /PDDIR    <dirname.subdirname>pattern                        |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 dirname
    is the name of a main directory,
 subdirname
    is the name of a subdirectory,
 pattern
    is part of a filename.
 Use /PDDIR without any parameters to get a listing of the main
 directories. With PDDIR <dirname> you will get a listing of the
 subdirectories under that directory. If you specify both directory
 and subdirectory, it will list the files that are available in that
 subdirectory. With pattern, you will get a listing of only those
 files that match or begin with that pattern. Wildcards "?" and "*"
 may be imbedded into subdirname and pattern ("?" matches any single
 character; "*" matches any number of characters).
 Use the /PDGET command to get files.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  /PDGET    <dirname.subdirname>filename ( delivery-option     |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 dirname
    is the name of a main directory,
 subdirname
    is the name of a subdirectory,

EARN Staff [Page 62] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 filename
    is the name of a file.
 delivery-option
    specifies the format to which the file(s) should be translated
    before being sent to you. The possible values are:
         EBC80  UUE  XXE  HEX  BTOA
    The option EBC80 should be used to get text files if you work on
    an IBM mainframe system. The other options are formats for
    translating binary files so that they can be sent via electronic
    mail. You will need a program to translate the file back to its
    original form. The default for EARN/Bitnet users is to send the
    file as-is. The default for others is UUE.
 Wildcards "?" and "*" may be imbedded into subdirname and filename
 ("?" matches any single character; "*" matches any number of
 characters) to get several files.
 The /SUB command is used to subscribe to directories or to individual
 files.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  /SUB      <dirname>                                          |
 |                                                               |
 |  /SUB      <dirname.subdirname>pattern                        |
 |                                                               |
 |  /SUB      QUERY                                              |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 dirname
    is the name of a main directory,
 subdirname
    is the name of a subdirectory,
 pattern
    is part of a filename.
 If you subscribe to a directory, you will get a summary of added
 files about once a week, depending on how active the FTP site is.
 This listing shows the names, sizes and dates of each file added. If
 you subscribe to a file, as soon as TRICKLE is informed that a new

EARN Staff [Page 63] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 version of the file has been stored at its FTP site, a copy of the
 file will be sent to you.
 Note that since filenames usually reflect the version number of the
 file, it is a good idea to omit the number when specifying a pattern.
 For example, it is better to send the command:
      /SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANV
 rather than
      /SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANV106
 since, as new versions of the file are stored, the name might change
 to SCANV107, SCANV108, etc.
 Wildcards are not allowed with the /SUB command.
 The /SUB QUERY command allows you to get a list of the files you are
 subscribed to.
 The /UNSUB command may be used to cancel a subscription.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  /UNSUB    <dirname>                                          |
 |                                                               |
 |  /UNSUB    <dirname.subdirname>pattern                        |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 dirname
    is the name of a main directory,
 subdirname
    is the name of a subdirectory,
 pattern
    is part of a filename.
 The command /UNSUB * may be used to terminate all your directory and
 file subscriptions.

EARN Staff [Page 64] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

9.5. Examples

 For a listing of the files in the VIRUS subdirectory of (the MSDOS
 directory, send the command:
      /PDDIR <MSDOS.VIRUS>
 To get the file 00-INDEX.TXT from <MSDOS.VIRUS> in EBCDIC format,
 send the command:
      /PDGET <MSDOS.VIRUS>00-INDEX.TXT ( EBC80
 If you are not sure of the exact name of the file, you can use
 wildcards:
      /PDGET <MSDOS.VIR*>*INDEX* ( EBC80
 To subscribe to  automatically get new versions of the  SCANV
 software from <MSDOS.VIRUS>, send the command:
      /SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANV
 To unsubscribe from all files in the VIRUS subdirectory, send the
 command:
      /UNSUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>*

9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE

 The /HELP command may be sent to any TRICKLE server to obtain a very
 detailed help file from the server.
 A brief guide to TRICKLE is available from the EARN documentation
 filelist. Send mail to LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or
 LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). In the body of the message, write:
      GET TRICKLE MEMO

10. BITFTP

10.1. What is BITFTP

 BITFTP, BITNET FTP Server, allows users of EARN, Bitnet and
 associated networks to access FTP sites on the Internet.
 The BITFTP server provides a mail interface between a user on the
 EARN/Bitnet network to FTP sites on the Internet. BITFTP handles this
 task by passing the commands specified in the mail message from the

EARN Staff [Page 65] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 user to another server that actually makes the connection to the FTP
 sites.  When the server finishes the interaction with the FTP site,
 or fails due to an error, a transcript of the result is sent back to
 the user, as well as the requested file(s), if any.
 The format of the files sent to the user can be defined within the
 mail message. BITFTP can deliver files in netdata and uuencode
 formats.

10.2. Who can use BITFTP

 BITFTP is currently available only to users on EARN, Bitnet and other
 regional NJE networks. BITFTP does not support multiple file requests
 via the mget command nor does it support sending files to FTP sites
 (the put command).

10.3. How to get to BITFTP

 There are BITFTP servers currently running at:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  BITFTP@DEARN.BITNET  or  BITFTP@VM.GMD.DE           Germany  |
 |  BITFTP@PUCC.BITNET   or  BITFTP@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU  USA      |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 Users on the EARN/Bitnet international network only may use the US
 server. Only users from EARN member countries may use the server in
 Germany. Servers at other locations are planned.
 BITFTP accepts requests via electronic mail, including IBM NOTE and
 PROFS-format messages, as well as by NJE file transfer.

10.4. Using BITFTP

 BITFTP implements a large subset of the FTP commands of the IBM's
 TCP/IP for VM, using the same syntax. This software is documented in
 the IBM manual TCP/IP for VM User's Guide. In the following, angle
 brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.
 Use the ftp command to specify which host to connect to. This command
 must be the first command in your mail file. You can also specify the
 file format that you wish BITFTP to use to deliver files to you.

EARN Staff [Page 66] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  ftp       hostname <fileformat>                              |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 hostname
    is either the IP address or the domain name of the host to connect
    to,
 fileformat
    is the format in which BITFTP should deliver files to you. It can
    be either netdata or uuencode.
 Use the user command to tell the host the username and the password
 to be used for the FTP connection. Note that on many FTP sites, both
 username and password are case-sensitive.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  user      username password                                  |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 username
    is the user-id to use for the FTP connection,
 password
    is the password for the username you specified. It can be omitted
    if you specified anonymous for the userid.
 Use the  cd command to select  a particular directory  as current
 directory.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  cd        directory-name                                     |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 directory-name
    is the name of the directory to be selected.

EARN Staff [Page 67] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Use the dir command to display a list of the files in the current, or
 specified, directory. The file names, and depending on the site, the
 file size, file creation date and other information will be listed.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  dir       <pattern>                                          |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 pattern
    is a pattern that defines which file names should be displayed.
    Many FTP sites are case-sensitive, thus care must be used with the
    pattern. The pattern may contain any number of characters, and the
    wildcard character "*" (asterisk) may be used to represent any
    characters.
 The ls command is similar to the dir command, except that with most
 FTP sites, it only displays the filenames, without any other
 information.  The pattern specification is identical to dir.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  ls        <pattern>                                          |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 Use the get command to obtain a file from the current host.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  get       foreignname <localname>                            |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 where:
 foreignname
    is the filename of the file, as stored at the FTP site. With many
    sites, the case of the filename must be respected.
 localname
    is an optional local filename. If you specify a localname, it must
    be in the form:  filename.filetype where neither part is  longer
    than eight characters.

EARN Staff [Page 68] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Use the binary command to set the FTP transfer mode. If this option
 is set then no EBCDIC-ASCII translation will take place. This should
 be used for non-text files.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  binary                                                       |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 Use the quit command to close the connection to the host, and to
 terminate the BITFTP session.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  quit                                                         |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

10.5. Examples

 To get the file how.to.ftp.guide from the directory
 /pub/nic/network.service.guides at the anonymous FTP site
 nic.sura.net, and to get a listing of the files in that directory,
 you could send the following commands by e-mail to BITFTP:
      ftp nic.sura.net
      user anonymous
      cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
      get how.to.ftp.guide
      dir
      quit
 In response you will receive an e-mail containing the following lines
 (some lines have been removed for brevity):
 > ftp nic.sura.net
 > user anonymous
 >> OPEN NIC.SURA.NET
 >> USER anonymous
 > cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
 >> CD pub/nic/network.service.guides
 > get how.to.ftp.guide
 >>>> "how.to.ftp.guide" sent as "HOWTO FTPGUIDE".
 > dir

EARN Staff [Page 69] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 total 60
 -rw-rw-r--  1 mtaranto 120   344 Apr 14  1992 README
 -rw-rw-r--  1 mtaranto 120 12759 Oct 30  1992 how.to.email.guide
 -rw-rw-r--  1 mtaranto 120  6327 Mar 24 13:28 how.to.ftp.guide
 -rw-rw-r--  1 root     120  2818 Mar  4  1992 how.to.telnet.guide
 -rw-rw-r--  1 mtaranto 120  6136 Oct 30  1992 how.to.use.vi.guide
 -rw-r--r--  1 1086     120     0 Aug 18 21:23 plane.
 The above directory listing is typical of the format of Unix FTP
 sites.  There is information on file permissions and ownership as
 well as the size of the file in bytes, the time and date of its last
 change, and the file name.
 You could request the first two files by once again sending mail to
 BITFTP with the following commands:
      ftp nic.sura.net
      user anonymous
      cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
      get README
      get how.to.email.guide
      quit

10.6. Learning more about BITFTP

 A four-page instruction to the BITFTP service can be obtained by
 sending a help command in the body of a mail message to either BITFTP
 server.
 Additional information on BITFTP may be obtained from EARN
 (NETHELP@EARNCC.EARN.NET or NETHELP@EARNCC.BITNET). More information
 about TCP/IP and FTP in general can be obtained from a wide variety
 of sources, such as the documents mentioned in the example above.

11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f)

11.1. What is LISTSERV

 LISTSERV is a distribution list management package. It runs on IBM
 VM/CMS systems in the international NJE network (EARN/ Bitnet). It
 allows groups of computer users with a common interest to communicate
 among themselves, while making efficient use of computer and network
 resources. It makes it easy for even novice users to discover, join,
 and participate in these interest group mailing lists. LISTSERV also
 provides facilities for logging and archiving of mail traffic, file
 server functions, and database searches of archives and files.

EARN Staff [Page 70] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 There are LISTSERV lists on every subject under the sun, with names
 ranging from AARPUB-L (AAR Electronic Publication list) to Z3950IW
 (Z39.50 Implementors Workshop). LISTSERV lists are international and
 eclectic. You will find lists in every imaginable field, for every
 audience, in many different countries and in many different
 languages.  See the description of the List command in the section
 Using LISTSERV section for instructions on getting an up-to-date list
 of lists.

11.2. Who can use LISTSERV

 Anyone who can send electronic mail to an EARN/Bitnet address can
 participate in a mailing list and access other LISTSERV facilities,
 as long as the e-mail format is valid (according to the RFC822
 standard), and has a usable return address. Every day, people use
 LISTSERV from HEPnet, Internet, Compuserve, MCIMail and many other
 networks throughout the world.
 If you don't know how to send electronic mail to EARN/Bitnet, ask
 your local support people for help.

11.3. How to get to LISTSERV

 To use LISTSERV facilities, send electronic mail with your LISTSERV
 commands to: LISTSERV@host-id where host-id is the host computer's
 NJE address (for example, TAUNIVM.BITNET) or its Internet domain name
 (in this case, VM.TAU.AC.IL). There may be some local variation on
 the format needed to send mail to Bitnet or Internet addresses. Check
 with your local support personnel.
 More than one command can be sent to LISTSERV in the same mail
 message.  Each command must be on a separate line. LISTSERV will
 ignore the Subject: line of the mail header, so ensure that your
 commands are in the body of the e-mail.
 For EARN/Bitnet users, interactive messages are the fastest and most
 convenient way to send commands to LISTSERV, but bear in mind that
 interactive messages only work when the links between your computer
 and LISTSERV are up; if the message fails, you can always send your
 command via mail.
 To facilitate communications with the LISTSERV servers on the
 EARN/Bitnet network, a special LISTSERV computer node has been
 defined.  This means that any EARN/Bitnet user can address their
 commands to the userid LISTSERV at the special node LISTSERV.
 All non-EARN/Bitnet users may address their command mail to the
 userid LISTSERV at the special node LISTSERV.NET. Note that if this

EARN Staff [Page 71] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 node is not yet defined on your network, you may also try
 LISTSERV%LISTSERV.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU. For example, if you wanted
 to join the 3D-L mailing list that discusses 3D computer graphics but
 are not sure of the address of the LISTSERV server hosting this list.
 You could send a subscription request to either of the following
 addresses:
      LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET
      LISTSERV@LISTSERV (on BITNET)
 Your subscription request will be automatically forwarded on to the
 LISTSERV server hosting the 3D-L mailing list (in this case, at the
 computer node ARIZVM1 or ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
 You may also utilize the special LISTSERV address to send e-mail to
 any LISTSERV mailing list if you are unsure of its address. For
 example, if you wanted to send mail to the BITFTP-L mailing list to
 request a copy of the BITFTP product, you could do so by addressing
 your e-mail to BITFTP-L@LISTSERV.NET. It will automatically be
 forwarded to the list's real address (in this case,
 BITFTP-L@EARNCC.EARN.NET) when it reaches the LISTSERV node. Once you
 know the real address of a list, it should be used for all future
 mail sent to that list.
 There are more than 250 sites in over 30 countries throughout the
 world running LISTSERV as part of the world-wide network. Here are a
 few of the LISTSERV sites:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 | NJE     Domain                 Site                    Country|
 | Host    Address                                               |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 | EARNCC  EARNCC.EARN.NET                                       |
 |                EARN Office, Paris                       France|
 | DEARN   VM.GMD.DE                                             |
 |                GMD, Bonn                               Germany|
 | HEARN   HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL                                  |
 |                Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen    Netherlands|
 | SEARN   SEARN.SUNET.SE                                        |
 |                Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan, Stockholm  Sweden|
 | BITNIC  BINTIC.CREN.NET                                       |
 |                BITNET Network Information Center           USA|
 | PUCC    PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU                                    |
 |                Princeton University, New Jersey            USA|
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

EARN Staff [Page 72] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

11.4. Using LISTSERV

 The commands given here are available for everyone and require no
 special LISTSERV command privileges. Only the most common commands
 are described. For a complete list of non-privileged LISTSERV
 commands, retrieve the LISTSERV User Guide in the DOC FILELIST from
 LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET).
 Commands are presented in a particular format: CAPITAL letters
 indicate acceptable abbreviation, angle brackets (<>) indicate an
 optional parameter, and vertical bar (|) indicates a choice of
 parameters. All parameters are fully explained in each command
 description.
 There is a standard set of command keywords available for use in some
 LISTSERV commands. They may be used with any commands where they
 appear as optional parameters in the command description. The
 important standard keywords are:
 PW= password
    This keyword is used to specify a password in a command. If you
    have registered a personal password on a LISTSERV server, you will
    then have to validate certain commands by using the PW= command
    keyword in the command text. This feature is designed to prevent
    impostors from issuing commands while using your e-mail address.
    The use of passwords is strongly recommended for this reason. See
    the PW command for details on registering personal passwords. Once
    you have registered a personal password at a LISTSERV server, you
    will be obliged to include the PW= command keyword in all commands
    where it appears as an option.
 F= format
    This keyword controls the file format (or internal file structure)
    in which files will be sent to you. If you are not a member of the
    EARN/Bitnet network, then LISTSERV will always use the default
    file format of MAIL. Otherwise, the default file format is
    dependent upon the information held in the BITEARN NODES file
    regarding your computer. The BITEARN NODES file is a special
    network definition file used in the EARN/Bitnet network. Any user
    may ask for a file format other than their default by specifying
    it in the F= command keyword in the commands where it appears as
    an option. Note that this will not permanently change your default
    file format, its effect is only for those commands where it is
    specified. Following is a list of file formats that are valid for
    all users:
         XXE  UUe  MIME/text  MIME/Appl  MAIL

EARN Staff [Page 73] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    In addition, EARN/Bitnet users may specify:
         Netdata  Card  Disk  Punch  LPunch  VMSdump
    Contact your local support personnel for more information about
    the file formats supported on your computer.
 11.4.1. Commands for LISTS:
    The primary function of LISTSERV is to operate mailing lists (also
    referred to as distribution lists). Mailing lists are used to
    distribute the e-mail sent to them to a list a recipients. They
    provide the means for a group of users to establish an e-mail
    forum on any topic or area of common interest. This service
    provides an extremely convenient means for the exchange of ideas
    and information between list members since LISTSERV (and not the
    mail sender) manages the distribution of e-mail to all of its
    final recipients. Users need only to remember one list address to
    which they send their mail in order to communicate to a
    potentially large number of users. Due to the efficiency with
    which LISTSERV distributes e-mail to list members, discussions or
    debates with a world-wide audience may be conducted.
    The following commands are designed for use with LISTSERV mailing
    lists.  With them you may do things such as finding the names and
    addresses of lists, signing on to or off lists, reviewing lists or
    changing your personal options for any mailing list to which you
    are subscribed.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  SUBscribe list-name  <full-name>                             |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the SUBscribe command to join a mailing list. You can also use
    this command to alter the name (but not e-mail address) by which
    you are known on a mailing list you have already joined. The
    list-name parameter is the name of the list to which you want to
    subscribe. For example, the EARN User Group list located at the
    node IRLEARN has a list name of EARN-UG. Do not confuse this with
    the list's address (EARN-UG@IRLEARN) which should not be used. The
    optional full-name parameter allows you to give a name by which
    you want to be known on a mailing list. If specified, it should be
    your full, real name (at least your first name and last name) and
    not your e-mail address. If you send this command to LISTSERV via
    command mail, the name for the full-name option will be taken from
    the name given in the From: mail header should it be omitted from

EARN Staff [Page 74] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    the command text. If you send a SUBscribe command for a list to
    which you already belong, then LISTSERV will interpret the command
    as a request to change your full-name on the list.
    A request to join a mailing list can be processed in three ways:
    subscription to a list may be OPEN, CLOSED, or BY-OWNER. If it is
    OPEN, you will be automatically added to the list and sent
    notification. If it is CLOSED, you will not be added to the list,
    and LISTSERV will send you a message telling you that your request
    has been rejected. If it is BY-OWNER, your subscription request
    will be forwarded to the list owner(s), who will decide whether or
    not to add you to the list (LISTSERV will inform you to whom your
    request has been forwarded). To see what kind of subscription a
    list has, use the REView command.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  UNSubscribe list-name  |  *  <(NETWIDE>                      |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the UNSubscribe command to leave a mailing list. The listname
    parameter is the name of a mailing list from which you want to
    remove your subscription. You can signoff all the lists to which
    you are a member at any particular LISTSERV site by using the "*"
    (asterisk) character in the place of a list name. If you want your
    UNSubscribe command to be propagated to all LISTSERV servers on
    the network, include the (NETWIDE option. Use this option if you
    are changing your e-mail address or are leaving your computer for
    an extended period.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  List      <options>  <F= format>                             |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the List command to get a listing of available mailing lists
    at a LISTSERV server. The options parameter may be any of the
    following:
    Short
       This option displays a summary of all the lists managed by a
       LISTSERV in a brief, one line description. This is the default.

EARN Staff [Page 75] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    Long
       The Long (or Detailed) option will send a file (called
       node-name LISTS) to you that contains a comprehensive
       description of the lists managed by a LISTSERV server.
    Global <pattern>
       This option gives a complete list of all known LISTSERV mailing
       lists at all servers at the time the command is issued. A file
       (called LISTSERV LISTS) will be sent to you containing the
       names, titles and e-mail addresses of these lists. This is a
       very large file, so make sure you have the necessary disk space
       to accommodate its size before you use the Global option. The
       optional pattern parameter can be used to match any string in
       the list name, list title or list address.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  REView    list-name  <(>  <options>                          |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the REView command to receive a listing of a mailing list. It
    will be sent to you as a file called list-name LIST (or list-name
    node-name for peered lists). A mailing list is comprised of two
    parts: a control section and a subscription section. The control
    section holds the definition parameters for a list which includes
    information such as who is authorized to review or join a list and
    whether or not it is archived. The subscription section holds the
    e-mail addresses and names of all list members. The REView command
    allows you to receive a listing of either or both of these
    sections (the default is both) for any list, provided you are
    authorized to do so. Note that at the discretion of the list
    owner(s), the REView command can be restricted in use to list
    members only. In this case, you will not be authorized to review a
    mailing list if you are not a member of that list yourself. Also,
    individual list members can restrict the appearance of their
    e-mail address and name in response to a REView command if they
    have set the CONCEAL mailing list option (see the SET command for
    more details). The list-name parameter is the name of the LISTSERV
    list you wish to review.  The important options are:
    Short
       This option restricts the information you receive to the
       control section of a list (giving its definition parameters)
       and does not return the subscription section of a list (giving
       the list members).

EARN Staff [Page 76] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    Countries
       If you use this option, the list of members will be by the
       nationality given in their e-mail.
    LOCal
       If the list is peered (that is, it is linked to other mailing
       lists of the same name but on different LISTSERV servers), you
       will receive listings of all of these mailing lists in response
       to a REView command.  The LOCal option can be used to suppress
       the propagation of the REView command to the LISTSERV servers
       hosting these peered mailing lists. In this case, you will
       receive a listing only from the server to which you send the
       REView command and not the others.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  Query     list-name  |  *                                    |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    When you join any mailing list, you will be assigned a default set
    of list options that control such things as way you received mail
    when it is distributed and the type of notification LISTSERV will
    give you when it distributes mail you have sent to a list. These
    are the personal list options that may be altered on any mailing
    list to which you are subscribed to suite your circumstances. See
    the SET command for a complete descriptions of these options. The
    Query command can be used to review the personal list options you
    have in effect at any mailing list.  The listname parameter is the
    name of a list to which you are subscribed. If you use an "*"
    (asterisk) character instead of a list name, you will receive
    information about your personal options for all lists to which you
    belong at the LISTSERV to which you send the command.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  SET       list-name  |  *   options                          |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the SET command to change your personal options for a mailing
    list.  These options will remain in effect until they are
    explicitly changed.  The Query command can be used to display your
    current optional settings for any list to which you are
    subscribed. The list-name parameter is the name of the mailing
    list for which you are changing your options. You may change your
    options for a specific list or for all the lists you belong to at
    a particular LISTSERV by using the "*" (asterisk) character in

EARN Staff [Page 77] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    place of a list name. After processing your SET command, LISTSERV
    will send you conformation of the successful alteration of your
    mailing list options via e-mail. The important options are:
    Mail | DIGests | INDex | NOMail
       These options of the SET command alter the way in which you
       receive mail from a mailing list. The Mail option means that
       you wish to have list mail distributed to you as mail. This is
       the default. The DIGests and INDex options are available only
       if a list has had these features enabled by its owner(s).
       Digests hold all the mail messages sent to a list over a
       certain period of time. Instead of receiving each mail
       individually as it is distributed to list members, you will
       receive all the mail in one batch for a given day, week or
       month. You may then browse through these mail messages at your
       leisure. Note that mail is not edited with the DIGests option,
       you will receive copies of all the mail messages in their
       entirety. The INDex option will provide you with only the date,
       time, subject, number of lines and the sender's name and
       address for all mail messages sent to a list. The text of the
       mail message will not be included. You may then select and
       retrieve any mail that interests you from the list archive.
       Both the DIGests and INDex options provide a means of listening
       in to discussions on mailing lists without having to deal with
       large quantities of incoming mail messages.  The NOMail option
       means that mail sent to the list will not be distributed to
       you. This is useful when you are leaving your computer for an
       extended period of time and you do not want mail from the list
       to fill your mailbox. When you return, you can send the SET
       command with the Mail option to restore mail service.
    SHORThdr | FULLhdr | IETFhdr | DUALhdr
       All mail messages are comprised of header and body sections.
       The header section provides details such as the recipients, the
       original sender and the date and time a mail message was sent.
       The mail body section contains the text of a mail message.
       These options of the SET command indicate the type of mail
       headers you want to receive in the mail distributed from a
       mailing list. SHORThdr means that the mail header will include
       only the essential informational headers (for instance the
       Date:, To:, From:, Subject:, Sender: and Reply-to: headers).
       This is the default. You may change this to FULLhdr, which
       means that all (including non-essential) mail headers will be
       present in e-mail. The IETFhdr option means that LISTSERV will
       not change the headers of a mail message it distributes to you
       other than to add a Received: mail header (and also a
       Message-id: and Sender: headers if either of these were not
       already present). This option is designed specifically for

EARN Staff [Page 78] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

       compatibility with SMTP exploders (as used, for instance, on
       the Internet network).  Lastly, DUALhdr is very similar to the
       SHORThdr option except that LISTSERV will also insert mail
       headers at the beginning of the mail body. Therefore, when the
       mail is received and read by a recipient using this option, it
       will start with this information (for instance, the first three
       lines of a mail message may contain the To:, From: and Subject:
       mail headers). This option is useful for users of some PC based
       mail packages that will not display this information from the
       real mail headers.
    CONCEAL | NOCONCEAL
       Indicates whether or not you want your name and mail address to
       appear in the display of list members which is given in
       response to a REView command. The default is NOCONCEAL. Note
       that a complete list of members is always given to list owners
       and LISTSERV administrators regardless of this option.
       +-------------------------------------------------------------+
       |                                                             |
       |  CONFIRM   list-name                                        |
       |                                                             |
       +-------------------------------------------------------------+
       Use  the CONFIRM  command to  renew your  subscription to  a
       list.  Some mailing lists require subscription renewal at
       regular intervals (usually once  a year).  A mail  message is
       automatically sent  to list  members indicating that they  must
       send a CONFIRM command within  a given number of days or they
       will be removed from the list. This command must be sent from
       the same e-mail address  that received the confirmation notice.
       The list-name parameter  is the name  of the mailing  list to
       which  you are confirming your  subscription. LISTSERV  will
       send  a message  that your subscription has been confirmed.
 11.4.2. Commands for FILES:
    LISTSERV also functions as a file server. That is, files can be
    stored at a LISTSERV server and made available for retrieval by
    users upon their request. These files are stored in LISTSERV under
    a hierarchical system of filelists. As the name suggests, a
    filelist is a special file that holds a list of files. Each entry
    in a filelist describes a file that is available for retrieval and
    gives details such as the file's name and size and also a file's
    access code (also known as a FAC) which describes who is
    authorized to retrieve it. These files may themselves be
    filelists, in which case they too will hold information about
    available files or further filelists. In this way, filelists are

EARN Staff [Page 79] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    organized in a hierarchical or tree structure.
    There are two basic types of filelists on LISTSERV servers. The
    first type holds files that have been specifically placed there by
    file owners or LISTSERV administrators. These files may be
    documents, maps or diagrams, or even programs. The second type of
    filelist is associated with a LISTSERV mailing list. These are
    referred to as list filelists and retain copies of all e-mail
    distributed on a particular mailing list. They consist of a series
    of files, each of which holds a copy of the mail messages
    distributed on a list over an interval of time (usually, one
    month). These files may then be retrieved to recover any list mail
    distributed during a specific period. Note that e-mail distributed
    on a mailing list may also be retrieved via the database functions
    of LISTSERV. Not all mailing lists have an associated list
    filelist; this is enabled at a list owner's discretion.
    A further aspect of the file server functions of LISTSERV is the
    concept of packages. A package consists of one or more files that
    appear in a filelist. These may be, for example, a series of files
    that go to make up a software package. A package is declared in a
    LISTSERV filelist through a file that has the special name of
    package-name $PACKAGE.  Within it will be a list of all the files
    that comprise the package.  This list can be reviewed by sending a
    retrieval request for that file.  However, all the files that
    comprise the package may also be retrieved through a request for
    the file: package-name PACKAGE. Note that in this case, the "$"
    (dollar) symbol is dropped from the name. The files that go to
    make up the package will then automatically be sent to the
    requestor. This enables users to retrieve an entire set of files
    that belong to a package with only one command, instead of having
    to retrieve each of these files individually through a series of
    commands.
    The following LISTSERV commands enable general users to manipulate
    files that are stored at a server. This includes commands to
    search for, retrieve and subscribe to files. When sending file
    server commands to LISTSERV, you must address them to the server
    and not to any mailing lists. Note that where the PW= keyword
    appears in a command description, this need only be included in
    the command text if you have defined a personal password at the
    server to which you are sending file server commands. Otherwise,
    it need not be used. The optional F= command keyword may included
    as desired.

EARN Staff [Page 80] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  INDex     <filelist>  <F= format>                            |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use the INDex command to get a listing of the files in a
    particular filelist. The filelist parameter specifies the name of
    the filelist you wish to get. If no name is specified, an index of
    the root filelist (called LISTSERV FILELIST) will be sent to you.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  GET       filename  filetype  <filelist>  <F= format>        |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    The GET command is used to retrieve a specific file or package
    from a filelist, provided you are authorized to do so. The
    filename and filetype parameters identify the file or package you
    wish to retrieve.  The optional filelist parameter identifies the
    filelist within which the file or package resides. If it is not
    supplied in the command, LISTSERV will determine the filelist
    through a search of its own internal filelist index.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  AFD       options                                            |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    AFD is an acronym for Automatic File Distribution. This command
    enables you to subscribe to a file or package in a filelist. Every
    time this file or package is updated in its filelist, you will
    then automatically be sent of copy of it by the LISTSERV server.
    You may subscribe to any number of files for packages from any
    filelist with the AFD command. You may also review or delete your
    subscriptions at any LISTSERV server. The options must be one of
    the following:
    ADD  filename  filetype  <filelist> <text> <PW= password>
    <F=format>
       The ADD option allows you to subscribe to a file or package.
       This means that a copy will henceforth be sent to you
       automatically by LISTSERV when it is updated on its filelist.
       The filename and filetype parameters identify a file or package
       to which you want to subscribe. The filelist option allows you
       to specify the name of the filelist in which it is located. If

EARN Staff [Page 81] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

       this is not specified in the command, LISTSERV will locate the
       filelist through a search of its own internal filelist index.
       Also, if you wish to have an informational text message
       inserted automatically at the top of the file or package when
       it is sent to you, you may use the text parameter. Note that if
       you omit the filelist option, the text you provide in the text
       parameter must be enclosed in double quotes (").  This
       parameter is most commonly used by network server applications
       that subscribe to files at a LISTSERV on behalf of users. If
       you are subscribing to files directly from LISTSERV yourself,
       you should not need to use this option.
    DELete  filename  filetype  <filelist>  <PW= password>
       Remove your subscription to a file or package for which you
       have an AFD.  The filename and filetype parameters identify a
       file or package to which you wish to remove an AFD. These names
       may also include the "*" (asterisk) wildcard character so that
       multiple files or packages may be removed with one DELete
       command. The filelist option allows you to specify the name of
       the filelist in which it is located. If this is not specified
       in the command, LISTSERV will locate the filelist through a
       search of its own internal filelist index.
    List <(FORMAT>
       The List option shows the files or packages to which you are
       currently subscribed at a LISTSERV. If you include the (FORMAT
       option, then the file format to be used when a file or package
       is sent to you will also be displayed.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  FUI       options                                            |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    FUI is an acronym for File Update Information. It enables you to
    subscribe to a file or package in a filelist. Every time this file
    for package is updated in its filelist, you will then
    automatically be informed of this by the LISTSERV server. This
    command is similar to the AFD command, except you will only be
    sent notification of an update rather than the updated file or
    package itself. You may subscribe to any number of files for
    packages from any filelist with the FUI command. You may also
    review or delete your subscriptions at any LISTSERV server. The
    options parameter must be one of the following:

EARN Staff [Page 82] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    ADD filename  filetype <filelist> <PW=  password>
       The ADD option allows you to subscribe to a file or package by
       adding an FUI to it. The filename and filetype parameters
       identify a file or package to which you want to add an FUI
       subscription. The filelist option allows you to specify the
       name of the filelist in which it is located. If this is not
       given in the command, LISTSERV will locate the filelist through
       a search of its own internal filelist index.
    DELete  filename  filetype  <filelist>  <PW= password>
       Remove your subscription from a file or package for which you
       have an FUI. The filename and filetype parameters identify a
       file or package to which you want to delete an FUI. The
       filelist option allows you to specify the name of the filelist
       in which it is located. If this is not specified in the
       command, LISTSERV will locate the filelist through a search of
       its own internal filelist index.
    List
       The List option shows the files or packages for which you
       currently have an FUI subscription at a LISTSERV server.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  Query File filename  filetype  <filelist>  <(FLags>          |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    This command can be used to get update information on various
    files.  Update information about the file or package specified in
    the filename and filetype parameters will be given. Optionally,
    you may include a filelist name in the filelist parameter. If it
    is omitted, LISTSERV will locate the filelist through a search of
    its own internal filelist index.  You may also specify the (FLags
    option to display additional technical data about the file (which
    can be useful when reporting problems to LISTSERV administrators).
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  PW        options                                            |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    The PW command enables you to add, change or delete a personal
    password on any LISTSERV server. A personal password is designed
    to give you added command security on a LISTSERV since it helps
    prevent impostors using your e-mail address. The use of personal
    passwords is strongly encouraged for this reason. Every server

EARN Staff [Page 83] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    will accept a password registration request from you at any time.
    Passwords are comprised of one to eight alphanumeric characters.
    You may change or delete your password at any time. The options
    parameter must be one of the following:
    ADD  new-password
       Add a new personal password on the LISTSERV processing your
       command.  Once you have registered a password on a LISTSERV
       server, you will be obliged to use the PW= command keyword in
       the commands where it appears as an option.
    CHange  old-password  new-password
       Change your personal password on a LISTSERV server where you
       already have one.
    DELete  old-password
       Remove your personal password from a LISTSERV where you already
       have one. Once you have removed a password from a LISTSERV
       server, you will no longer be obliged to use the PW= command
       keyword in the commands where it appears as an option.
 11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions
    LISTSERV provides the facility for users to retrieve old mail that
    has been distributed on mailing lists. Each mailing list has an
    associated database (called a notebook or list archive database)
    in which list mail is stored. Note that databases may not be
    maintained for every mailing list, this is done at the discretion
    of a list owner. The notebook databases are the most commonly used
    of the LISTSERV databases. However, every LISTSERV server also has
    a database of all the EARN/Bitnet computer nodes (called the
    BITEARN database). This is available to all LISTSERV users. The
    backbone LISTSERV servers also have a database of all the LISTSERV
    computer nodes (called the PEERS database). In addition to these
    databases, a LISTSERV server may have any number of different
    databases that have been created locally. To find out what
    databases are accessible at a particular LISTSERV site, send
    following command to that server:
              DATABASE LIST
    To perform a database search, you can send mail to LISTSERV
    containing a batch database job which contains your database
    query. In addition, EARN/Bitnet users on VM or VMS systems can
    access the database facilities interactively via the LDBASE
    program. For more details on the LISTSERV database facilities,
    send an Info DATABASE command to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV
    server (see the section Commands for INFORMATION) or consult the

EARN Staff [Page 84] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

    LISTSERV DATABASE Functions chapter in the LISTSERV User Guide.
 11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION:
    The LISTSERV server can provide a diverse range of information to
    the general user. This includes help files, release levels of the
    server and important configuration files, statistics and
    information pertaining to the EARN/Bitnet network. When sending
    these commands to LISTSERV, they must be addressed to the server
    and not to any mailing lists it may manage. For those commands
    that result in files being sent to the requestor (for example the
    Info command), the format of the file can be specified by the
    optional command keyword F= in the command text (see the section
    LISTSERV Command Keywords for more information).
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  Help                                                         |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use this command to get a brief description of the most commonly
    used LISTSERV commands and also the name and e-mail address of the
    server's postmaster.
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                               |
    |  Info      <topic>  <F= format>                               |
    |                                                               |
    +---------------------------------------------------------------+
    Use this command to get an informational (or help) file from a
    LISTSERV server. The topic option should specify the topic for
    which an informational file will be sent to you. You may get a
    list of valid topics by sending the Info command with no
    parameters to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV.

11.5. Examples

 You wish to subscribe to the EARNEWS list which is located at the
 node FRMOP11. Your full name is Mark P. Waugh. Send the following
 command to LISTSERV@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR (or LISTSERV@FRMOP11.BITNET):
      SUBSCRIBE EARNEWS Mark P. Waugh
 You wish to leave the INFO-MAC mailing list (to which you have
 already subscribed) at the node CEARN (or CEARN.CERN.FR). The
 command:

EARN Staff [Page 85] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

      UNSUBSCRIBE INFO-MAC
 should be sent to the LISTSERV server at CEARN (or CEARN.CERN.FR)
 which manages the INFO-MAC list. To leave all the LISTSERV lists you
 belong to throughout the network, send the following command to your
 nearest (or any) LISTSERV:
      UNSUBSCRIBE * (NETWIDE
 You wish to receive a listing of all mailing lists that have the text
 europe in their name or title. Send the following command to your
 nearest (or any) LISTSERV server:
      LIST GLOBAL EUROPE
 You want to stop receiving mail from all the lists at SEARN (or
 SEARN.SUNET.SE) to which you belong. Send the following command to
 the LISTSERV server at SEARN (or SEARN.SUNET.SE):
      SET * NOMAIL
 You have received a message from the LISTSERV server at IRLEARN (or
 IRLEARN.UCD.IE) asking you to confirm your subscription to the EARN-
 UG list. Send the following command to that server:
      CONFIRM EARN-UG
 You wish to receive a listing of the files in the DOC FILELIST The
 command:
      INDEX DOC
 should be sent to the LISTSERV server at EARNCC (or EARNCC.EARN.NET)
 where this filelist is located. Note that the above command is the
 same as issuing a GET DOC FILELIST command.
 You wish to retrieve the file PCPROG ZIP from a filelist and have it
 sent to you in XXE file format. Send the following command to the
 LISTSERV server that holds this file:
      GET PCPROG ZIP F=XXE
 You want to retrieve all the files that make up a package called
 PROGRAM (as listed in a file called PROGRAM $PACKAGE) from a filelist
 called SAMPLE. Send the command:
      GET PROGRAM PACKAGE SAMPLE

EARN Staff [Page 86] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 You wish to subscribe to a file called BUGDET MEMO in a filelist
 called EXPENSES with an AFD:
      AFD ADD BUDGET MEMO EXPENSES
 To subscribe to a file called VM EMAIL in the DOC FILELIST with an
 FUI, you would send the following command to LISTSERV at node EARNCC
 (or EARNCC.EARN.NET):
      FUI ADD VM EMAIL DOC

11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV

 A standard set of help files are available upon request from each
 LISTSERV server. To get a copy of these files, use the INFO command
 (see the section Commands for INFORMATION).
 Detailed documentation on LISTSERV (and related services) is
 available from the DOC FILELIST at LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or
 LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). This includes the LISTSERV User Guide which
 is available in both postscript and plain text formats. To obtain a
 list of available documents use the INDex command (see the section
 Commands for FILES).
 There are several mailing lists for discussion of technical LISTSERV
 issues. They are not intended for casual users, but they should be of
 interest to advanced users. They are:
      LSTSRV-L  Technical forum on LISTSERV
      LSTOWN-L  LISTSERV list owners' forum
      LDBASE-L  Forum on LISTSERV database search capabilities

12. NETNEWS (USENET)

12.1. What is NETNEWS

 Netnews, or Usenet as it is more commonly called, is a message
 sharing system that exchanges messages electronically around the
 world in a standard format. Messages exchanged on Usenet are arranged
 by topic into categories called newsgroups. Netnews is, thus, a huge
 collection of messages, being passed from machine to machine. The
 messages may contain both plain text and encoded binary information.
 The messages also contain header lines that define who the message
 came from, when the message was posted, where it was posted, where it
 has passed, and other administrative information.

EARN Staff [Page 87] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 The major, hierarchical categories of Usenet newsgroups which are
 distributed throughout the world are alt, comp, misc, news, rec, sci,
 soc, and talk. There are many other major categories which may be
 topical (e.g., bionet, biz, vmsnet) and are usually distributed
 worldwide as well, or geographical and even organizational (e.g.,
 ieee) or commercial (e.g., clari). The latter categories are usually
 distributed only with their area of interest. The messages of many
 Bitnet LISTSERV mailing lists are also distributed in Usenet under
 the major category bit.
 The major categories are further broken down into more than 1200
 newsgroups on different subjects which range from education for the
 disabled to Star Trek and from environmental science to politics in
 the former Soviet Union. The quality of the discussion in newsgroups
 is not guaranteed to be high. Some newsgroups have a moderator who
 scans the messages for the group before they are distributed and
 decides which ones are appropriate for distribution.
 Usenet was originally developed for Unix systems in 1979. Within a
 year, fifty Unix sites were participating. Now, there are thousands
 of sites running a number of operating systems on a variety of
 hardware platforms communicating via Usenet around the globe.

12.2. Who can use NETNEWS

 Usenet newsgroups can be read at thousands of sites around the world.
 In addition, there are several sites that provide public dial-up
 service so that people who are not at a Usenet site can have access
 to newsgroups as well. If you don't know if your site has Usenet
 access, check with your local computer support people.
 Protocols and software for the distribution of news are in use in
 several networks, such as the Internet, UUCP, EARN/Bitnet and
 Fidonet.
 If you have e-mail service only, then you can not access Usenet.
 However, many newsgroups are connected to mailing lists which you
 could join. For a list of these newsgroups and their associated
 mailing lists, send mail to LISTSERV@AMERICAN.EDU with the line: GET
 NETGATE GATELIST.  Moreover, many of the documents which appear
 periodically in newsgroups are available by e-mail from
 mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. For instructions, send a message with the
 subject: HELP.

EARN Staff [Page 88] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

12.3. How to get to NETNEWS

 If your site provides Usenet access, then you just need to use one of
 the many software packages available for reading news (at least one
 is probably available on your computer). These packages either access
 a local news spool, or use the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
 to access the news spool on some other computer in the network.
 Within EARN, a network of Netnews distribution has been developed,
 providing efficient distribution of Usenet traffic while minimizing
 the load on the network for the participating countries.
 If Usenet is not available to you and you would like to arrange
 access for your site, contact your system administrator. You should
 also read the article How to become a USENET site which is posted
 periodically to the news.answers newsgroup. It is also available by
 anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as
 /pub/usenet/news.answers/site-setup or by mail to:
 mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the line: send
 usenet/news.answers/site-setup.

12.4. Using NETNEWS

 There are many software packages available for reading and
 distributing Netnews on a variety of operating systems (Unix, VMS,
 VM/CMS, MVS, Macintosh, MS-DOS and OS/2) and environments (Emacs,
 X-Windows, MS-Windows). See the list of freely available news reader
 software packages in Appendix A. Note that the number of software
 packages available to run news, especially on PCs, is increasing.
 In addition to the software packages specifically designed to be news
 readers, many other communications programs, particular mail
 interfaces, provide the possibility for Usenet access in addition to
 their main function.
 Most, if not all, of the news readers provide the same basic
 abilities:
  • Subscribing to newsgroups: This means that your news reading

software will make these groups immediately accessible, so that

      you can choose to read the postings of groups that interest you
      quickly and easily.
  • Unsubscribing from newsgroups: Removing groups from your easy

access list.

EARN Staff [Page 89] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

  • Reading newsgroup postings: Your news reader presents postings

to you and keeps track of which postings you have and have not

      read.
  • Threads of discussion: You can follow groups of postings that

deal with the same subject easily.

  • Posting to news groups: You can participate in group

discussions; your news reader knows where to send your posting.

  • Responding to a posting: You can send a response to the

newsgroup (often called follow-up) or to the author of a posting

      (often called reply).

EARN Staff [Page 90] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

12.5. Examples

 When you enter the tin news reader, you get a listing of the
 newsgroups to which you are subscribed:
  1. —————————————————————-
                          Group Selection (9)              h=help
    1 30637 bit.listserv.novell   local list
    2  1106 comp.mail.misc        General discussions about compu
    3  8031 comp.protocols.tcp-ip TCP and IP network protocols.
    4   840 comp.sys.mac
    5  8789 news.answers          Repository for periodic USENET
 -> 6    29 news.lists            News-related statistics and lis
    7 15056 rec.woodworking       Hobbyists interested in woodwor
    8  7094 sci.psychology        Topics related to psychology.
    9 13093 soc.culture.celtic    Celtic, Irish, & Welsh culture
  • End of Groups *
  1. —————————————————————
 In tin, selecting a newsgroup is done with the arrow keys. When you
 select a group, you get a listing of the articles:
  1. —————————————————————
                     comp.mail.misc (41T 64A 0K 0H)         h=help
     1 +   RIPEM Frequently Noted Vulnerabilities  Marc VanHeyningen
     2 +   RIPEM Frequently Asked Questions        Marc VanHeyningen
     3 +   Mail Archive Server software list       Jonathan I. Kamen
     4 + 1 UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ          Chris Lewis
     5 + 2 PC Eudora and Trumpet Winsock problem   Jim Graham
     6 +   X11 mail reader                         Dominique Marant
     7 +   MIME supporting e-mail                  Tim Goodwin
     8 + 1 IBM User name and Address Server        Wes Spears
     9 + 5 Newbie needs MHS/SMTP question answered Chris Pearce
    10 +   FAQ - pine                              Bruce Lilly
    11 +   FAQ: International E-mail accessibility Olivier M.J. Crep
 -> 12 +   PC E-Mail and Dial-in                   Edward Vielmetti
    13 +   Prodigy Mail Manager "01/07"            an33127@anon.pene
    14 +   Prodigy Mail Manager "02/07"            an33127@anon.pene
    15 +   Prodigy Mail Manager "03/07"            an33127@anon.pene
  1. —————————————————————

EARN Staff [Page 91] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 tins is a threaded news reader: replies to a posting are grouped
 together with the original posting, so that the reader can follow a
 thread of discussion. Above, you see the threads, the number of
 replies in each thread, the subject and the author. The plus sign (+)
 indicates that not all postings in the thread have been read. Other
 news readers show other details. When you select an item, it appears
 on your screen:
  1. —————————————————————
 Wed, 01 Sep 1993 07:05:49     comp.mail.misc     Thread  13 of 41
 Lines 27          Re: PC E-Mail and Dial-in          No responses
 emv@garnet.msen.com  Edward Vielmetti at Msen, Inc. --  Ann Arbor
 Sherry H. Lake (slake@mason1.gmu.edu) wrote:
 :    I am looking for an email package that will allow a user to
 : dial-in to his mail machine download any messages to his local
 : PC, delete the messages from the server and then automatically
 : sign him off. The user can then use his client software (local)
 : to read, compose and reply. He then would have to dial-in again
 : to so his outgoing mail will be uploaded to the server.
 Various POP clients for PCs or Windows Sockets will do roughly
 this. You should look at:
  1. NUPOP (MS-DOS)
  2. Eudora for Windows (Windows)
  3. WinQVT/Net (Windows)
  4. various commercial POP clients listed in the 'alt.winsock'

directory of commercial Windows systems

 You'll want to look particularly for dial up IP software (SLIP or
 PPP) that makes the process of connecting minimally onerous, e.g.
 by scripting the session so that the users don't have to type
 anything, perhaps by automatically dialing for you when you go to
 read or otherwise open a network connection, and offering a
 reasonable way to disconnect.
 Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, Msen Inc.
 emv@Msen.com Msen Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI 48103
 +1 313 998 4562 (fax: 998 4563)
  1. —————————————————————

EARN Staff [Page 92] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS

 News programs communicate with each other according to standard
 protocols, some of which are described by Internet Request For
 Comments (RFC). Copies of RFCs are often posted to the network and
 obtainable from archive sites. Current news-related RFCs include the
 following:
      RFC 977   specifies NNTP, the Network News Transfer Protocol,
      RFC 1036  specifies the format of Usenet articles.
 Some newsgroups carry articles and discussions on the use of Usenet,
 notably: news.announce.newusers, news.answers and
 news.newusers.questions.
 Many of the articles which appear periodically in these newsgroups or
 in others are also available from rtfm.mit.edu by anonymous FTP or by
 mail to: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu

13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST

13.1. ASTRA

13.1.1. What is ASTRA

 The ASTRA service allows users to retrieve documents from databases
 known by ASTRA throughout the network. Users can send their queries
 to the ASTRA server which in turn forwards the query to the related
 database servers. This provides an easy-to-use uniform access method
 to a large number of databases.
 ASTRA provides the same user interface for all databases it can
 access, even if the database servers have different access languages,
 such as STAIRS, ISIS or SQL.
 Each database defined in ASTRA has an abstract which holds
 information about the database: title, name of the maintainers, a
 brief description of the database, the main topics of the database
 and its language. Users are advised to look at the abstracts before
 sending requests, to avoid sending requests to the wrong databases.
 Some databases actually combine several different databases that deal
 with the same topics. When a user sends a request for such a
 database, the request is forwarded to all related databases.

EARN Staff [Page 93] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA

 Anyone who can send electronic mail to EARN/Bitnet can access ASTRA.
 Interactive user interfaces (clients) to ASTRA are available for VM
 and VMS systems on the EARN/Bitnet network. For all other users,
 there is a batch language that permits batch queries using e-mail.
 Currently there are five ASTRA servers installed at the following
 addresses:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET   or   ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT       |
 |  ASTRASQL@ICNUCEVM.BITNET  or   ASTRASQL@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT      |
 |  ASTRADB@IFIBDP.BITNET                                        |
 |  ASTRADB@IFIIDG.BITNET     or   ASTRADB@IDG.FI.CNR.IT         |
 |  ASTRADB@IRMKANT.BITNET    or   ASTRADB@IRMKANT.RM.CNR.IT     |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA

 An extensive help file is available by sending the command HELP to
 ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET).
 The LISTSERV list ASTRA-UG is used for the distribution of a
 newsletter about new databases or new versions of the current
 databases. To subscribe, send the command:
      SUB ASTRA-UG Your Name
 to LISTSERV@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or LISTSERV@ICNUCEVM.BITNET).
 An ASTRA newsletter is also available by sending the command NEWS to
 ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET).
 The developers of the ASTRA service may be contacted at:
 ASTRA@ICNUCEVM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRA@ICNUCEVM.BITNET).

13.2. NETSERV

13.2.1 What is NETSERV

 NETSERV is a server, which allows fast access to data files and
 programs of interest to the EARN/Bitnet community. NETSERV provides a
 file repository consisting of information files and programs. It
 allows users to retrieve files, to store files and to subscribe to
 the files of their choice. The latter two functions however, require

EARN Staff [Page 94] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 that the user have a password for NETSERV (this is called a
 privileged user).
 In order to achieve a balanced load on the network and a faster
 response time to users, NETSERV uses a distributed server concept:
 this is achieved by the installation of a large number of servers on
 the network to ensure that the user can locate a nearby server. All
 servers communicate with each other to distribute updated information
 and make it available from each copy of the server.
 NETSERV's file server functions include retrieving any file present
 in its filelists, storing new versions of a file, and subscribing to
 files stored on the server. Its file directories are arranged in an
 hierarchical method, with NETSERV FILELIST being on top or at the
 root of the filelists. This filelist can be obtained by sending a GET
 NETSERV FILELIST command to any NETSERV. Filelists contain short
 descriptions of the files, and two access codes for each file. These
 codes represent the get and put privileges required for that file.
 These codes are explained at the beginning of the NETSERV FILELIST
 file.

13.2.2 How to get to NETSERV

 The server is available in almost every country. To find the closest
 server for your area send a QUERY SERVICE command to a server. The
 following are examples of NETSERV server addresses:
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |   NETSERV@FRMOP11.BITNET   or   NETSERV@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR      |
 |   NETSERV@HEARN.BITNET     or   NETSERV@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL  |
 |   NETSERV@BITNIC.BITNET    or   NETSERV@BITNIC.CREN.NET       |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 In EARN, there is only one NETSERV permitted for one country.
 However, in some limited cases, such as when the country has a large
 number of nodes, additional servers may be installed. In any case,
 the user is not required to run NETSERV to be able to access and use
 the server.
 NETSERV accepts e-mail access from users on any network. Commands to
 NETSERV should be placed in the body of the mail file, and not in the
 Subject: line.
 For users in the EARN/Bitnet network, NETSERV is accessible via
 interactive message. Commands from privileged users requiring a
 password must be sent this way.

EARN Staff [Page 95] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 NETSERV does not have delivery limitations, except that a file
 ordered from NETSERV cannot be ordered again on the same day.

13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV

 The server provides a large helpfile  which can be obtained by
 sending a GET NETSERV HELPFILE command to any NETSERV.
 A list for NETSERV maintainers is available as
 NETSRV-M@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (or NETSRV-M@HEARN.BITNET).
 Additional information can be obtained from the NETSERV maintainer,
 Ulrich Giese at U001212@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (or
 U001212@HEARN.BITNET).

13.3. MAILBASE

13.3.1. What is MAILBASE

 MAILBASE is an electronic information service with much of the same
 functionality as LISTSERV. It allows United Kingdom groups to manage
 their own discussion topics (Mailbase lists) and associated files.
 The Mailbase service is run as part of the JANET Networked
 Information Services Project (NISP) based at Newcastle University.

13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE

 Commands should be sent in an electronic mail message to
 mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. More than one command may appear in a
 message to Mailbase. Commands may be in any order, in UPPER, lower,
 or MiXeD case.

13.3.3 Learning more about MAILBASE

 For a summary of Mailbase commands, send the command help in an
 e-mail message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. For a list of on-line
 documentation about Mailbase, send the command: index mailbase.
 You can then use the send command to retrieve those documents that
 interest you. E.g., to retrieve a file of frequently asked questions,
 send the following command: send mailbase user-faq.
 User support is also available by sending queries in an e-mail
 message to: mailbase-helpline@mailbase.ac.uk
 Public files on Mailbase are also available by anonymous FTP to
 mailbase.ac.uk

EARN Staff [Page 96] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

13.4. PROSPERO

13.4.1. What is PROSPERO

 PROSPERO is a distributed file system. It differs from traditional
 distributed file systems in several ways. In traditional file
 systems, the mapping of names to files is the same for all users.
 Prospero supports user centered naming: users construct customized
 views of the files that are accessible. A virtual system defines this
 view and controls the mapping from names to files. Objects may be
 organized in multiple ways and the same object may appear in
 different virtual systems, or even with multiple names in the same
 virtual system.
 In Prospero, the global file system consists of a collection of
 virtual file systems. Virtual file systems usually start as a copy of
 a prototype. The root contains links to files or directories selected
 by the user.
 The Prospero file system provides tools that make it easier to keep
 track of and organize information in large systems. When first
 created, your virtual file system is likely to contain links to
 directories that organize information in different ways. As the
 master copy of each of these directories is updated, you will see the
 changes. You may customize these directories. The changes you make to
 a customized directory are only seen from within your own virtual
 system, but changes made to the master copy will also be visible to
 you.
 Users are encouraged to organize their own projects and papers in a
 manner that will allow them to be easily added to the master
 directory.  For example, users should consider creating a virtual
 directory that contains pointers to copies of each of the papers that
 they want made available to the outside world. This virtual directory
 may appear anywhere in the user's virtual system. Once set up, a link
 may be added to the master author directory. In this manner, others
 will be able to find this directory. Once added to the master
 directory, any future changes will be immediately available to other
 users.

13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO

 In order to use Prospero, you must be on the international TCP/IP
 network (the Internet) and you must have Prospero running on your
 computer.
 Before you can begin using the Prospero file system a virtual system
 must be created for you. However, Prospero, as shipped, is configured

EARN Staff [Page 97] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 so that once you compile the clients you can type: vfsetup guest and
 start working right out of the box using a guest virtual system at
 the USC Information Sciences Institute.
 The latest version of PROSPERO is available as file prospero.tar.Z
 for anonymous FTP from prospero.isi.edu in the directory
 /pub/prospero.

13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO

 Prospero is being developed by Clifford Newman. Several documents and
 articles describing Prospero by Newman and others are available.
 The following files are available via anonymous FTP from
 prospero.isi.edu. They are also available through Prospero.
  • Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z,
  • Prospero:

/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z.

 This is a useful first paper to read. It gives a good overview of
 Prospero and what it does. It also describes a bit about the Virtual
 System model, of which Prospero is a prototype implementation. It
 describes what Prospero does, not how it does it.
  • Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z,
  • Prospero:

/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z.

 This paper describes how Prospero can be used to integrate Internet
 information services, including Gopher, WAIS, archie, and World-Wide
 Web.

13.5. IRC

13.5.1. What is IRC

 IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is a real-time conversational system. It is
 similar to the talk command which is available on many machines in
 the Internet. IRC does everything talk does, but it allows more than
 2 users to talk at once, with access throughout the global Internet.
 It also provides many other useful features.
 IRC is networked over much of North America, Europe, and Asia. When
 you are talking in IRC, everything you type will instantly be
 transmitted around the world to other users who are connected at the

EARN Staff [Page 98] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 time. They can then type something and respond to your messages.
 Topics of discussion on IRC are varied. Technical and political
 discussions are popular, especially when world events are in
 progress.  IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, as people from
 many countries and cultures are on, 24 hours a day. Most
 conversations are in English, but there are always channels in
 German, Japanese, and Finnish, and occasionally other languages.

13.5.2. How to get to IRC

 Clients and servers for IRC are available via anonymous FTP from
 cs.bu.edu. A few sites offer public access to IRC via Telnet. Two
 such sites are wbrt.wb.psu.edu and irc.demon.co.uk. At both sites,
 you should log in as irc.
 The many server hosts of Internet Relay Chat throughout the network
 are connected via a tree structure. The various servers relay control
 and message data among themselves to advertise the existence of other
 servers, users, and the channels and other resources being occupied
 by those users.
 Fundamental to the operation of IRC is the concept of a channel. All
 users are on a channel while inside IRC. You enter the null channel
 first. You cannot send any messages until you enter a chatting
 channel, unless you have set up a private conversation in some way.
 The number of channels is essentially unlimited.

13.5.3. Learning more about IRC

 To get help while in IRC, type /help and follow the instructions.
 If you have problems, you can contact Christopher Davis (ckd@eff.org)
 or Helen Rose (hrose@eff.org) - known on IRC as ckd and Trillian,
 respectively. You can also ask for help on some of the operator
 channels on IRC, for example #twilight_zone and #eu-opers.
 Various documents on IRC, and the archives of IRC-related mailing
 lists, are available via anonymous FTP from ftp.kei.com.

13.6. RELAY

13.6.1. What is RELAY

 The RELAY server system is a set of servers in the global EARN/Bitnet
 network which broadcast interactive messages from one user to other
 users signed on to the same channel of the RELAY system. A user
 signed on to the closest available RELAY is also virtually signed on

EARN Staff [Page 99] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 to all RELAYs which are linked to it. Most RELAYs are closed during
 peak hours.  Only some RELAYs are up 24 hours a day.
 Each RELAY server provides service to a specific collection of one or
 more nodes designated as a service area. The functions of RELAY are
 available to EARN/Bitnet users with access to interactive messages
 who have not been expressly excluded from the system by RELAY
 management.
 RELAY is a program which allows several people to talk at the same
 time.  In order to start, you must sign on to a RELAY to place your
 ID in the current user list. You communicate with RELAY through
 messages just as you would send messages to a user. RELAY commands
 start with a slash (/) character; anything not beginning with a slash
 is considered a message and is sent back out to all other current
 users.

13.6.2. How to get to RELAY

 RELAY is available at the following EARN/Bitnet addresses, and
 others.  The nickname of the RELAY machine is in parentheses.
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                               |
 |  RELAY@ASUACAD    (Sun_Devils)   RELAY@PURCCVM  (Purdue)      |
 |  RELAY@AUVM       (Wash_DC)      RELAY@SEARN    (Stockholm)   |
 |  RELAY@BEARN      (Belgium)      RELAY@TAMVM1   (Aggieland)   |
 |  RELAY@BNANDP11   (Namur)        RELAY@TAUNIVM  (Israel)      |
 |  RELAY@CEARN      (Geneva)       RELAY@TECMTYVM (Monterrey)   |
 |  RLY@CORNELLC     (Ithaca_NY)    RELAY@TREARN   (EgeRelay     |
 |  RELAY@CZHRZU1A   (Zurich)       MASRELAY@UBVM  (Buffalo)     |
 |  RELAY@DEARN      (Germany)      RELAY@UFRJ     (RioJaneiro)  |
 |  RELAY@DKTC11     (Copenhagen)   RELAY@UIUCVMD  (Urbana_IL)   |
 |  RELAY@FINHUTC    (Finland)      RELAY@USCVM    (LosAngeles)  |
 |  RELAY@GITVM1     (Atlanta)      RELAY@UTCVM    (Tennessee)   |
 |  RELAY@GREARN     (Hellas)       RELAY@UWAVM    (Seattle)     |
 |  RELAY@HEARN      (Holland)      RELAY@VILLVM   (Philadelph)  |
 |  RELAY@ITESMVF1   (Mexico)       RELAY@VMTECQRO (Queretaro)   |
 |  RELAY@JPNSUT00   (Tokyo)        RELAY@VTBIT    (Va_Tech)     |
 |  RELAY@NDSUVM1    (No_Dakota)    RELAY@WATDCS   (Waterloo)    |
 |  RELAY@NYUCCVM    (NYU)          RELAY@YALEVM   (Yale)        |
 |                                                               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 RELAY is available to users on the EARN/Bitnet network via
 interactive message (e.g., the TELL command of VM or the SEND command
 of VMS/JNET).  All RELAY server machines are on IBM VM/CMS systems,
 but you do not have to be a VM user in order to use RELAY. If you are

EARN Staff [Page 100] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 not in the EARN/Bitnet network, you can not use RELAY.
 CHAT, a full-screen interface to send and receive TELL messages for
 VM systems, is particularly useful for users of RELAY. CHAT is
 available from any NETSERV.

13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY

 Upon registration, the files RELAY INFO and RELAY USERGUIDE are sent
 to the user. These two files give a comprehensive description of
 RELAY.
 A  brief  guide  to  RELAY  is available  from  the  EARN
 documentation filelist. Send mail to LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or
 LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). In the body of the message, write: GET RELAY
 MEMO.

14. Security Considerations

 Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

15. References

 Blue Book, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII.8, Data Communication Networks
 Directory, Recommendations X.500-X.521, CCITT, 1988, ISBN 92-61-
 03731-3
 Schwartz, M., and P. Tsirigotis, "Experience with a Semantically
 Cognizant Internet White Pages Directory Tool", Journal of
 Internetworking Research and Experience, March 1991, pp. 23-50.
 Kantor, B., and P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer Protocol: A
 Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News", RFC
 977, UC San Diego & UC Berkeley, February 1986.
 Horton, M., and R. Adams, "Standard for interchange of USENET
 messages", RFC 1036, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Center for Seismic
 Studies, December 1987.
 Lang, R., and R. Wright, "A Catalog of Available X.500
 Implementations", FYI 11, RFC 1292, SRI International, Lawrence
 Berkeley Laboratory, January 1992.
 Weider, C., and J. Reynolds, "Executive Introduction to Directory
 Services Using the X.500 Protocol", FYI 13, RFC 1308, ANS, ISI, March
 1992.

EARN Staff [Page 101] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

 Weider, C., Reynolds, J., and S. Heker, "Technical Overview of
 Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol", FYI 14, RFC 1309, ANS,
 ISI, JvNC, March 1992.
 Williamson, S., "Transition and Modernization of the Internet
 Registration Service", RFC 1400, Network Solutions, Inc., March 1993.

16. Acknowledgements

 The work of many people is reflected here, but we owe our greatest
 debt of thanks to the developers and authors of the network tools and
 documentation. Their work serves as the basis for this guide.

17. Author's Address

 EARN Staff
 Daniele Bovio
 Ulrich Giese
 Nadine Grange
 Turgut Kalfaoglu
 Greg Lloyd
 David Sitman
 EARN Office
 PSI - Batiment 211
 91405 Orsay CEDEX
 France
 Phone: +33 1 6941 2426
 Fax: +33 1 6941 6683
 EMail: earndoc@earncc.earn.net

EARN Staff [Page 102] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software

 Below you will find the location of client software for several of
 the tools described in this guide (Gopher, WWW, WAIS and Netnews).
 This is not a complete listing of available software for any of these
 tools.

18.1 Gopher clients

Environment FTP site & directory Comments

Unix boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/Unix

VMS boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/VMS
            job.acs.ohio-state.edu
             XGOPHER_CLIENT.SHARE    for Wollongong or UCX

VM/CMS boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/Rice_CMS
            boombox.micro.umn.edu
             /pub/gopher/VieGOPHER

MVS boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/mvs

Macintosh boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/Macintosh-TurboGopher
            ftp.cc.utah.edu
             /pub/gopher/Macintosh    requires MacTCP
            ftp.bio.indiana.edu
             /util/gopher/gopherapp   requires MacTCP

OS/2 boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/os2

MS-DOS boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/PC_client    requires packet driver
            oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
             /public/dos/misc         dosgopher, for PC/TCP

EARN Staff [Page 103] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

            bcm.tmc.edu
             /nfs/gopher.exe          for PC-NFS
            lennon.itn.med.umich.edu
             /dos/gopher              for LAN Workplace for DOS

MS-Windows sunsite.unc.edu

             /pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/apps  Gopherbook

X-Windows boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/Unix         xgopher (Athena widgets)
            boombox.micro.umn.edu
             /pub/gopher/Unix         moog (Motif)
            boombox.micro.umn.edu
             /pub/gopher/Unix/xvgopher     or Xview

NeXT boombox.micro.umn.edu

             /pub/gopher/NeXT

18.2. World-Wide Web clients

Environment FTP site & directory Comments

Unix info.cern.ch

             /pub/www/src            WWW line-mode browser
            ftp2.cc.ukans.edu
             /pub/WWW/lynx           Lynx browser for vt100 terminals
            archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
             /pub/w3browser          tty-based browser written in perl

VMS info.cern.ch

             /pub/www/bin/vms        port of NCSA Mosaic for X

Macintosh info.cern.src

             /pub/www/bin/mac        requires MacTCP

EARN Staff [Page 104] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

MS-Windows fatty.law.cornell.edu Cello

             /pub/LII/Cello

Emacs moose.cs.indiana.edu

             /pub/elisp/w3

X-Windows info.cern.ch

             /pub/www/src            tkWWW Browser/Editor
            info.cern.ch
             /pub/www/src            MidasWWW Browser for X/Motif
            info.cern.ch
             /pub/www/src            ViolaWWW Browser for X11
            ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu
             /Web                    NCSA Mosaic Browser for X11/Motif

NeXT info.cern.ch

             /pub/www/bin/next       Browser and Editor

18.3. WAIS clients

Environment FTP site & directory Comments

Unix ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/unix-src  swais

VMS ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/vms

MVS ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/ibm-mvs

Macintosh ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/mac

OS/2 ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/os2

MS-DOS sunsite.unc.edu

             /pub/wais/DOS
            hilbert.wharton.upenn.edu
             /pub/tcpip              PCWAIS

MS-Windows ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/windows   WNWAIS

EARN Staff [Page 105] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

            ftp.cnidr.org
             /pub/NIDR.tools/wais/pc/windows

Emacs ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/unix-src  gwais

X-Windows ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/unix-src  xwais

NeXT ftp.wais.com

             /pub/freeware/next

18.4. Netnews - news reader software

Environment FTP site Name & Comments

Unix lib.tmc.edu rn also available via e-mail to:

                                     archive-server@bcn.tmc.edu
            ftp.coe.montana.edu      trn
            dkuug.dk                 nn
            ftp.germany.eu.net       tin

VMS kuhub.cc.ukans.edu ANU-NEWS

            arizona.edu              VMS/VNEWS

VM/CMS psuvm.psu.edu NetNews

                                     also available from LISTSERV@PSUVM
            ftp.uni-stuttgart.de     NNR
            cc1.kuleuven.ac.be       VMNNTP

MVS ftp.uni-stuttgart.de NNMVS

Macintosh ftp.apple.com News

MS-DOS ftp.utas.edu.au Trumpet

MS-Windows ftp.utas.edu.au WTrumpet

X-Windows many FTP sites xrn

            export.lcs.mit.edu       xvnews

EARN Staff [Page 106] RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994

Emacs most GNU sites GNUS

                                     for use with GNU Emacs editor
            most GNU sites           Gnews
                                     for use with GNU Emacs editor

EARN Staff [Page 107]

/data/webs/external/dokuwiki/data/pages/rfc/fyi/fyi23.txt · Last modified: 1994/03/19 01:12 by 127.0.0.1

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