Internet a través del correo electrónico
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Accessing The Internet By Email |
| Guide to Offline Internet Access |
| Version 8.4 - September 1999 |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Copyright (c) 1999, Gerald E. Boyd
gboyd@netcom.com
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to duplicate and
distribute copies of this document provided the copyright
notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
A Brief History
---------------
Accessing The Internet By Email or originally known as "Doctor Bob's
Guide to Offline Internet Access" was the brainchild of Bob Rankin (a
great net guy) who started it up in 1994. He kept it up about 5 years
before passing it to me in January 1999, when it became apparent he was
too busy with other projects (Internet Tourbus, writing, etc.) to
continue maintaining it.
In October 1997 I had taken over the moderator duties of the ACCMAIL
mailing list (which is used to further develop ideas expressed in this
FAQ) and started a web page based on this FAQ. I guess he figured I was
the logical person to take over the FAQ. Hmmm!
So there you go.
How to Access Internet Services by Email
-----------------------------------------
If you don't have direct access to the Internet through your BBS or
online service, you're not alone. Many of the world's countries with
Internet connections have only email access to this world-wide network
of networks.
But if you think that sounds limiting, read on. You can access almost
any Internet resource using email. Maybe you've heard of FTP, Gopher,
Archie, Veronica, Finger, Usenet, Whois, Netfind, WAIS, and the
World-Wide Web but thought they were out of your reach because you don't
have a direct connection.
Not so! You can use simple email commands to do all of this and much
more on the Internet. And even if you do have full Internet access,
using email services can save you time and money. If you can send a
note to an Internet address, you're in the game.
I encourage you to read this entire document first and then go back and
try out the techniques that are covered. This way, you will gain a
broader perspective of the information resources that are available, an
introduction to the tools you can work with, and the best methods for
finding the information you want.
Recent Changes To This Document
-------------------------------
8.4 WORLD NEWS REVIEW at inbox@netserve.FT.com DEFUNCT as of 15Jun99,
STOCK MARKET QUOTES at services@quote.com DEFUNCT as of 23Jun99
added another method using Agora like commands.
Added ASK-A-TECH, revised CURRENCY CONVERSION, revised FINANCIAL
AID FAQ, Added MEDICAL INFORMATION BY EMAIL, Added LANGUAGE
TRANSLATION BY EMAIL, added GENE SPLICING, added STATLIB
8.3 New foreign language versions, new address for BABEL, update
ANONYMOUS EMAIL section, Veronica by email DEFUNCT, Revised Archie
servers, revised ftpmail servers, revised USENET by Email, STOCK
MARKET QUOTE section updated.
Finding the Latest Version
--------------------------
This document is now available from several automated mail servers.
To get the latest edition, send email to one of the addresses below.
To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu (for US, Canada & South America)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
To: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (for Europe, Asia, etc.)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt
To: gboyd@netcom.com
Subject: send accmail.faq
You can also get the file by anonymous FTP at one of these sites:
Site: rtfm.mit.edu
get pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
Site: ftp.mailbase.ac.uk
get pub/lists/lis-iis/files/e-access-inet.txt
Or on the Web in HTML format at:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/internet-services/access
-via-email/faq.html
Before You Write...
-------------------
Please make sure you have the latest version of this guide before
writing to the author with questions and updates. Don't give up too
quickly on the busy email servers, and if you get an error message, try
your request again on a different day or time. If you'd like to keep up
with the latest updates and announcements of new versions, send the
command:
SUBSCRIBE ACCMAIL Firstname Lastname
in the BODY of a message to the address "LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM". In
fact, the ACCMAIL list is a great place to ask any questions you have
about this guide. You're likely to get a quicker response from one of
the list subscribers, because the author gets several hundred messages
per day!
Other Translations of This Document
-----------------------------------
Several readers have graciously volunteered to translate this text into
languages other than English. Please contact the author if you would
like to assist in the translation of this document into another
language. The list below shows the status of the translation work that
has been done or is in progress. To obtain any of the completed texts,
send email
To: gboyd@netcom.com
Subject: send accmail.xx (where "xx" is as shown below)
Translation Filename Translation Filename
----------------------- ---------- ----------------------- ----------
Bulgarian (7th Ed.) accmail.bg Italian (8th Ed.) accmail.it
Catalan (5th Ed.) accmail.ca Japanese (6th Ed.) accmail.jp
Chinese BIG5 (5th Ed.) accmail.tw Lithuanian (6th Ed.) accmail.lt
Chinese GB (8th Ed.) accmail.gb Norwegian (4th Ed.) accmail.no
Croatian (4th Ed.) accmail.hr Polish (4th Ed.) accmail.pl
Czech (6th Ed.) accmail.cz Portuguese (6th Ed.) accmail.pt
Danish (5th Ed.) accmail.dk Romanian (6th Ed.) accmail.ro
Dutch (8th Ed.) accmail.nl Russian (8th Ed.) accmail.ru
Esperanto (5th Ed.) accmail.eo Serbian (6th Ed.) accmail.sr
Farsi (8th Ed.) accmail.ir Slovak (6th Ed.) accmail.sk
Finnish (6th Ed.) accmail.fi Somali (5th Ed.) accmail.so
French (6th Ed.) accmail.fr Spanish (8th Ed.) accmail.sp
German (8th Ed.) accmail.de Thai (6th Ed.) accmail.th
Greek (6th Ed.) accmail.gr Ukranian (6th Ed.) accmail.ua
Hebrew (5th Ed.) accmail.he Urdu (8th Ed.) accmail.pk
Hungarian (8th Ed.) accmail.hu Vietnamese (7th Ed.) accmail.vn
Indonesian (8th Ed.) accmail.id
NOTE: Your "send accmail.xx" request MUST be in the SUBJECT line!
Acknowledgements
----------------
This document is continually expanding and improving as a result of the
daily flood of comments and questions received by the author. The
following individuals are hereby recognized for their work in
translating "Accessing" to various languages. (If I forgot anyone, let
me know and I'll gladly add you to the list.)
Bulgarian - Kolcho Kovachev Indonesian - Yohanes Nugroho
Catalan - Ricard Forner Italian - cromatis@ecn.org
Chinese Big5 - Ju-En Teng Japanese - Komatsu Toshiki
Chinese GB - Li Ying Lithuanian - Darius Matuliauskas
Croatian - Zvonko Springer Norwegian - Vidar Sarvik
Croatian - Nikola Borojevic Polish - Ewa Poskrobko
Czech - Martin Slunecko Polish - Krzysztof Buniewicz
Danish - Christian Schou Portuguese - Joao Neves
Dutch - Berry Van Hombeeck Romanian - Mihai Jalobeanu
Esperanto - Martin Weichert Russian - Alexander Ilyin
Farsi - Mansour Dehestani Monfared Serbian - Brankica Kranjac
Farsi - Zahra Sheik Serbian - Ivan Stamenkovic
Finnish - Paavo Juntunen Slovakian - Stanislav Ponca
French - Pierre Couillard Somali - Yassin Ismail Ali
German - Marc Loehrwald Spanish - Bellanet Org
Greek - Grigoris Miliaresis Thai - Boonyakiat Saengwan
Hebrew - Ron Barak Ukranian - Dmitry V. Bisikalo
Hungarian - Lajos Toldy Urdu - M. Shahid Khaki
A Short Aside... "What is the Internet?"
----------------------------------------
Many introductory texts on the Internet go into excruciating detail on
the history, composition and protocol of the Internet. If you were
looking for that you won't find it here, because this is a "how to"
lesson, not a history book.
When you buy a new car, they don't make you read "The Life and Times of
Henry Ford" before you can turn the top down and squeal off the lot.
And when you get a new computer, nobody forces you to read a text on
logic design before you fire up Leisure Suit Larry or WordPerfect.
So if you're the type that wants to short-circuit the preliminaries and
just dig in, you've come to the right place. I'm not going to bore you
with the gory details. Instead, I'll just offer up my Reader's Digest
condensed definition of the Internet, and encourage you to find out more
as you gain skill at using the tools described herein.
Internet (noun) - A sprawling collection of computer networks that spans
the globe, connecting government, military, educational and commercial
institutions, as well as private citizens to a wide range of computer
services, resources, and information. A set of network conventions and
common tools are employed to give the appearance of a single large
network, even though the computers that are linked together use many
different hardware and software platforms.
The Rules of The Game
---------------------
This document is meant to be both tutorial and practical, so there are
lots of actual commands and internet addresses listed herein. You'll
notice that when these are included in the text they are indented by
several spaces for clarity. Don't include the leading spaces when you
try these commands on your own!
You'll also see things like "" or "" appearing in this
document. Think of these as place holders or variables which must be
replaced with an appropriate value. Do NOT include the quotes or
brackets in your value unless specifically directed to do so.
Most email servers understand only a small set of commands and are not
very forgiving if you deviate from what they expect. So include ONLY
the specified commands in the Subject or body of your note, leaving off
any extraneous lines such as your signature, etc.
Unless otherwise specified, you can leave the Subject and/or body of the
note empty. If your mail software insists on a Subject or body, just
type "XYZZY" or something equally non-sensical.
You should also ensure that you have one blank line between the note
headers and the body of your note. And do pay attention to upper/lower
case in directory and file names when using email servers. It's almost
always important.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
SPECIAL NOTE: The email servers listed in this guide are for the most
part operated by kind-hearted volunteers at companies or universities.
If you abuse (or over-use) the servers, there's a very good chance they
will be shut down permanently. This actually happened to several of the
email servers recently, so treat them with respect.
If you have direct Internet access, let others who are less fortunate
use the email servers. Try to limit your data transfers to one
megabyte per day. Don't swamp the servers with many requests at a
time.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
FTP BY EMAIL
-------------
FTP stands for "file transfer protocol", and is a means of accessing
files that are stored on remote computer systems (sites). Files at FTP
sites are typically stored in a tree-like set of directories (or nested
folders for Mac fans), each of which pertains to a different subject.
When visiting an FTP site using a "live" internet connection, one would
specify the name of the site, login with a userid & password, navigate
to the desired directory and select one or more files to be transferred
back to their local system.
Using FTP by email is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "ftpmail server" which logs in to the remote
site and returns the requested files to you in response to a set of
commands in an email message.
Using FTP by email can be nice even for those with full Internet
access, because some popular FTP sites are heavily loaded and
interactive response can be very sluggish. So it makes sense not to
waste time and connect charges in these cases.
To use FTP by email, you first need a list of FTP "sites" which are the
addresses of the remote computer systems that allow you to retrieve
files anonymously (without having a userid and password on that
system).
There are some popular sites listed later in this guide, but you can get
a comprehensive list of hundreds of anonymous FTP sites by sending an
email message to the internet address:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
and include these lines in the BODY of the note.
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part1
... (21 lines omitted for brevity) ...
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part23
You will then receive (by email) 23 files which comprise the "FTP Site
List". Note that these files are each about 60K, so the whole lot will
total over a megabyte! This could place a strain on your system, so
first check around to see if the list is already available locally.
Another file you might want to get is "FTP Frequently Asked Questions"
which contains lots more info on using FTP services, so add this line to
your note as well:
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
After you receive the site list you'll see dozens of entries like this,
which tell you the site name, location and the kind of files that are
stored there.
Site : oak.oakland.edu
Country: USA
GMT : -5
Date : 23-Jul-95
Source : old ftp-list
Alias : oak; rigel.acs.oakland.edu
Admin : admin@vela.acs.oakland.edu
Organ : Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, Academic Computing
Services
Server : gopher://gopher.oakland.edu/ http://www.acs.oakland.edu/
System : Unix
URL : ftp://oak.oakland.edu/
Comment: simtel mirror (of ftp.simtel.net); max. 400 users
Files : BBS lists; ham radio; ka9q TCP/IP; Mac; modem protocol info;
MS-DOS; MS-Windows; PC Blue; PostScript; simtel; Unix
If you find an interesting FTP site in the list, send email to one of
these ftpmail servers:
bitftp@plearn.edu.pl (Poland) - No UUCP gateways
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (United States) - OK UUCP gateways
ftpmail@academ.com (United States) added 16Aug99
ftpmail@btoy1.rochester.ny.us (United States)
ftpmail@cnd.caravan.ru (Russia - added 11Apr99) - SLOW
ftpmail@dna.affrc.go.jp (Japan)
ftpmail@ftp.sunet.se (Sweden)
ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de (Germany)
ftpmail@garbo.uwasa.fi (Finland) NO ANSWER 04, 07Jun99
ftpmail@giswitch.sggw.waw.pl (Poland)
ftpmail@mail.iif.hu (Hungary)
ftpmail@mercure.umh.ac.be (Belgium)
ftpmail@uar.net (Ukraine)
Note: There are other restricted-use FTPMAIL servers listed at
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1236/servers.html
See the "WWW By Email" section for help retrieving this file.
It doesn't really matter which one you choose, but a server that is
geographically close may respond quicker. (Please DON'T use the first
one in the list just because it's there!) In the body of the note,
include these lines:
open
dir
quit
This will return to you a list of the files stored in the root directory
at that site. See the figure below for an example of the output when
using "oak.oakland.edu" for the site name.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 1498680 Jun 2 03:19 Index-byname
-r--r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 1386 Mar 22 1996 README
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 91042651 Feb 6 03:13 access
-rw-r--r-- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 61464576 Feb 6 03:12 errors
drwx--x--x 4 ftpuser ftpusers 8192 Apr 6 1998 etc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ftpuser ftpusers 7 Apr 6 1998 irc -> pub/irc
drwxr-xr-x 23 ftpuser ftpusers 8192 Apr 6 1998 pub
-rw-r----- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 327680 Apr 6 1998 quota.group
-rw-r----- 1 ftpuser ftpusers 835584 Apr 6 1998 quota.user
drwx------ 50 ftpuser ftpusers 8192 May 27 03:30 w8sdz
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
In your next email message you can navigate to other directories by
inserting (for example)
chdir pub (use "cd" if "chdir" doesn't work)
before the "dir" command. (The "chdir" means "change directory" and
"pub" is a common directory name, usually a good place to start.) Once
you determine the name of a file you want to retrieve, use:
get
in the following note instead of the "dir" command. If the file you
want to retrieve is plain text, this will suffice. If it's a binary
file (an executable program, compressed file, etc.) you'll need to
insert the command:
binary
in your note before the "get" command.
Tip: Many directories at FTP sites contain a file called 00-index.txt,
README, or something similarly named which gives a description of the
files found there. If you're just exploring and your "dir" reveals one
of these filenames, do a "get" on the file and save yourself some time.
OK, let's grab the text of The Magna Carta. Here's the message you send
to an ftpmail server:
open ftp.cs.strath.ac.uk (The name of the FTP site)
chdir local/gw (The directory where the file lives)
get magna.txt (Sign here please, John)
quit (Bring it on home)
Here are the commands you would send to to get a file from the Simtel
Software Repository that was mentioned earlier.
open oak.oakland.edu (mirrored at ftp.simtel.net)
cd pub/simtelnet/msdos/disasm/
binary (Because we're getting a ZIP file)
get bubble.zip
quit
Some other interesting FTP sites you may want to "visit" are listed
below. (Use these site names on the "open" command and the suggested
directory name on your "chdir" command, as in the previous examples.)
rtfm.mit.edu Try: pub/usenet/news.answers for USENET info
ftp.simtel.net Try: pub/simtelnet a huge DOS/WIN software library
gatekeeper.dec.com Try: pub/recipes for a cooking & recipe archive
Remember that you can't just send email to ftpmail@, rather
you send the "open " command to one of the known ftpmail servers.
Notes:
- The ftpmail servers tend to be quite busy. Your reply may not arrive
for several minutes, hours, or days.
- Some large files may be split into smaller pieces and returned to you
as multiple messages. You can control this (and also override the
return email address) using special ftpmail commands.
- The commands are not the same on every server - send the "help"
command to find out how FTPMAIL works on the server you are using!
- Often the ftpmail servers keep local archives. Open the local archives
by not specifying a site on the "open" line. Using the local archives
gives your request priority so it will be processed before all outside
requests.
If the file that is returned to you ends up looking something like what
you see below, (the word "begin" with a number and the filename on one
line, followed by a bunch of 61-character lines) it most likely is a
binary file that has been "uuencoded" by the sender. (This is required
in order to reliably transmit binary files by email.)
begin 666 answer2.zip
M4$L#!`H`!@`.`/6H?18.$-Z$F@P```@?```,````5$5,25@S,34N5%A480I[
M!P8;!KL,2P,)!PL).PD'%@.(!@4.!P8%-@.6%PL*!@@*.P4.%00.%P4*.`4.
You'll need to scrounge up a version of the "uudecode" program for your
operating system (DOS, OS/2, Unix, Mac, etc.) in order to reconstruct
the file. Most likely you'll find a copy already at your site or in
your service provider's download library, but if not you can use the
instructions in the next section to find out how to search FTP sites for
a copy.
ARCHIE BY EMAIL
----------------
Let's say you know the name of a file, but you have no idea at which FTP
site it might be lurking. Or maybe you're curious to know if files
matching a certain naming criteria are available via FTP. Archie is the
tool you can use to find out.
Archie servers can be thought of as a database of all the anonymous FTP
sites in the world, allowing you to find the site and/or name of a file
to be retrieved. And using Archie by email can be convenient because
some Archie searches take a LONG time to complete, leaving you to tap
your toes in the meantime.
To use Archie by email, simply send an email message to one of the
following addresses (use the closest one):
archie@archie.sogang.ac.kr Korea
archie@archie.th-darmstadt.de Germany
To obtain detailed help for using Archie by mail, put the word
help
in the subject of the note and just send it off. You'll receive email
explaining how to use archie services. If you're the "just do it" type,
then enter the command:
find
where "" is the name of the file to search for, in the BODY (not
the subject) of the note. This will search for files that match your
criteria exactly. If you want to find files that contain your search
criteria anywhere in their name, insert the line
set search sub
before the "find" command. Some other useful archie commands you might
want to use are:
set maxhits 20 (limit output, default is 100 files)
set match_domain usa (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
set output_format terse (return output in condensed form)
When you get the results from your Archie query, it will contain the
names of various sites at which the desired file is located. Use one of
these site names and the directory/filename listed for your next FTP
file retrieval request.
Now you've learned enough to locate that UUDECODE utility mentioned in
the last section. Let's send email to archie@archie.bunyip.com (or
one of the other archie servers), and include the following lines in the
message:
set match_domain usa
set search sub (looking for a substring match...)
find uudecode (must contain this string...)
Note: You'll be looking for the uudecode source code, not the executable
version, which would of course be a binary file and would arrive
uuencoded - a Catch 22! The output of your archie query will contain
lots of information like this:
Host ftp.clarkson.edu (128.153.4.2)
Last updated 06:31 9 Oct 1994
Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
FILE -r-xr-xr-x 5572 bytes 21:00 11 Mar 1991 uudecode.bas
Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
FILE -r-xr-xr-x 5349 bytes 20:00 17 Apr 1991 uudecode.c
Now you can use an ftpmail server to request "uudecode.bas" (if you have
BASIC available) or "uudecode.c" (if you have a C compiler) from the
ftp.clarkson.edu site.
It should be noted that the latest version of uudecode can be found at
the SimTel repository. Send email to listserv@SimTel.net, including
any or all of these commands in the BODY of the note, and the requested
files will be returned to you by email.
get uudecode.bas
get uudecode.c
get uudecode.doc
SPECIAL NOTE: For DOS users, there is an EXECUTABLE ASCII version of
the UUDECODE.COM program available. This is a rare exception to the
rule that executable files must be encoded to survive email
transmission. You can receive it via email and execute it "as is". To
get a copy, send email to gboyd@netcom.com with Subject: send
uudecode.com (must be lowercase). For further info on using uudecode,
request the "uudecode.how" file.
GOPHER BY EMAIL
----------------
Gopher is a tool for exploring the Internet and is one way to find a
resource if you know what you want, but not where to find it. Gopher
systems are menu-based, and provide a user-friendly front end to
Internet resources, searches and information retrieval.
When visiting a Gopher site using a "live" Internet connection, one
would specify the name of the site, navigate through a series of
hierarchical menus to a desired resource, and then either read or
transfer the information back to their home system.
Using Gopher by email is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "gophermail server" which gophers to the
remote site on your behalf and and returns the requested menu, submenu
or file to you in response to a set of commands in an email message.
NOTE: In recent years, Gopher has fallen in popularity and most of the
gophermail servers have closed down. But still there is quite a
bit of information available on gopher servers, and a few working
gophermail servers.
Although not every item on every menu will be accessible by
"gophermail", you'll still find plenty of interesting things using this
technique. Down to brass tacks... let's send email to one of these
addresses:
gopher@dna.affrc.go.jp Japan
gopher@ncc.go.jp Japan
You can optionally specify the address of a known gopher site on the
Subject line to get the main menu for that site instead. Here are some
interesting gopher sites you may like to explore at your leisure.
cwis.usc.edu (closed down Jan99 but usable)
gopher.micro.umn.edu
Let's be bold and skip the HELP stuff for now. Fire off a note to one
of the gophermail servers and specify
Subject: cwis.usc.edu
You'll get a message back from the server that looks something like the
text in the figure below.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Mail this file back to gopher with an X before the items you want.
1. About USCgopher/
2. How To Find Things on Gopher/
3. University Information/
4. Campus Life/
5. Computing Information/
6. Library and Research Information/
7. Health Sciences/
8. Research and Technology Centers/
9. Other Gophers and Information Resources/
You may edit the following numbers to set the maximum sizes after
which GopherMail should send output as multiple email messages:
Split=27K bytes/message <- For text, bin, HQX messages
Menu=100 items/message <- For menus and query responses
#
Name=About USCgopher
Numb=1
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/About_USCgopher
Host=cwis.usc.edu
# ... (50 lines deleted) ...
Name=Other Gophers and Information Resources
Numb=9
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources
Host=cwis.usc.edu
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
To proceed to a selection on the returned menu just email the whole
text of the note (from the menu downwards) back to the gopher server,
placing an "x" next to the items(s) you want to explore. You'll then
receive the next level of the gopher menu by email. Some menu choices
lead to other menus, some lead to text files, and some lead to searches.
In the example above, let's select
x 9. Other Gophers & Info Resources
and mail the whole shebang right back at the gophermail server. You
should then get a menu with a number of interesting selections including
"Gopher Jewels". You'll find a LOT of good stuff along that path. The
Gopher Jewels project is probably the best organized collection of
Internet resources around.
If a menu item is labelled "Search" you can select that item with an "x"
and supply your search words in the Subject: of your reply. Note that
your search criteria can be a single word or a boolean expression such
as:
document and (historic or government)
Each of the results (the "hits") of your search will be displayed as an
entry on yet another gopher menu!
Note: You needn't actually return the entire gopher menu and all the
routing info that follows it each time you reply to the gophermail
server. If you want to minimize the size of your query, you can strip
out the "menu" portion at the top and include only the portion below
that pertains to the menu selection you want.
Just remember that if you use this approach, you must specify "get all"
on the Subject line. (Exception: for searching, specify only the search
terms on the Subject line.) The example below is equivalent to
selecting "option 9" as we did earlier.
Split=0K bytes/message
Menu=0 items/message
#
Name=Other Gophers and Information Resources
Numb=9
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources
Host=cwis.usc.edu
If this looks like nonsense to you, here's a human translation:
Connect to PORT 70 of the HOST (computer) at "cwis.usc.edu",
retrieve the sub-menu "Other Gophers", and send it to me in
ONE PIECE, regardless of its size.
Note: Sometimes gophermail requests return a blank menu or message.
This is most likely because the server failed to connect to the host
from which you were trying to get your information. Send your request
again later and it'll probably work.
VERONICA BY EMAIL
------------------
Sorry, there currently are no active Veronica servers.
Veronica was a resource-discovery system providing access to information
resources held on most of the world's gopher servers. In addition to
native gopher data, veronica included references to many resources
provided by other types of information servers, such as WWW servers,
usenet archives, and telnet-accessible information services.
As far as I can determine, the last Veronica server quit functioning at
the beginning of 1999. My last full test of Veronica by email occurred
in Oct 1998.
USENET BY EMAIL
----------------
Usenet is a collection of over 25000 discussion groups on every topic
imaginable. In order to get a proper start and avoid embarrasing
yourself needlessly, you must read the Usenet new users intro document,
which can be obtained by sending email to:
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
and include this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/news-newusers-intro
To get a listing of Usenet newsgroups, add these commands to your note:
send usenet/news.answers/active-newsgroups/part1 (also get part2)
send usenet/news.answers/alt-hierarchies/part1 (also get part2 & part3)
To get the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file(s) for a given
newsgroup, try a command like this:
index usenet/
(Substitute dots for dashes if they appear in the newsgroup name.) If
any FAQ files are available, they will be listed in the returned info,
and you can request them with a command like:
send usenet//
Reading Usenet Newsgroups
-------------------------
Once you've handled the preliminaries, you'll need to know how to read
and contribute to Usenet newsgroups by email. To read a newsgroup, you
can use the gophermail service discussed earlier in this guide.
To obtain a list of recent postings to a particular newsgroup, send the
following lines to one of the gophermail servers mentioned previously.
Specify "Subject: get all" and include only these lines in the message
body.
(You must replace "" below with the name of the Usenet
newsgroup you wish to access. eg: alt.answers, biz.comp.services,
news.newusers.questions, etc.)
Type=1
Port=4320
Path=nntp ls
Host=services.canberra.edu.au
If this doesn't work, you can try another Host by substituting one of
the lines below.
Host=gopher.ic.ac.uk (very very busy)
Or you can try these servers.
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/news
Host=gopher.pwr.wroc.pl
Type=1
Port=70
Path=1/usenet
Host=sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk
Note that some of these sites carry only a limited range of newsgroups,
so you may have to try several before finding one which carries the
newsgroup you're looking for. When the newsgroup does not exist,
gophermail sends something like "'nntp ls ': path does not
exist". When a site does not accept outside requests, gophermail sends
something like "Sorry, we don't accept requests outside campus".
If successful, the gophermail server will send you a typical gopher menu
on which you may select the individual postings you wish to read. If
your query returns nothing, or you get a "not found" message, try it at
another time of day. The servers are very busy during regular business
hours.
NOTE: Gophermail servers are a vanishing breed. You can also get Usenet
postings from several webmail servers listed in the WORLD-WIDE WEB BY
EMAIL section later in this document. There are two approaches:
1) Use a webmail server to access a gopher site which carries Usenet.
The example from above when translated into a web address would be:
gopher://services.canberra.edu.au:4320/1nntp
gopher://gopher.pwr.wroc.pl:70/11/news
gopher://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk:70/1/usenet
2) Look for an Agora server with a "Y" in the "Usenet Access" column and
send a command like this in the message body: send news:
Note: See the "WWW By Email" section below for a list of "getweb"
"agora" and "www4mail" servers.
With a little luck, you'll get a list of recent postings to the
newsgroup, and then you can retrieve the individual postings by replying
to the message from the Agora server. Make sure not to change the
subject line of the reply message, and just put the number of the
posting you want in the message BODY.
Posting In Usenet Newsgroups
----------------------------
If you decide to make a post of your own, here are two methods to try:
METHOD 1: Mail the text of your post to:
group.name@newsgw.rrze.uni-erlangen.de
mail2news-YYYYMMDD-group.name@anon.lcs.mit.edu
group.name@berlioz.crs4.it
group.name@comlab.ox.ac.uk
group.name@pubnews.demon.co.uk
outnews+netnews.group.name@andrew.cmu.edu
no.group.name@news.uninett.no
So to post to news.newusers.questions, you might send your message to:
news.newusers.questions@newsgw.rrze.uni-erlangen.de
Be sure to include an appropriate Subject: line, and include your real
name and email address at the close of your note.
Substitute today's date instead of YYMMDD and the newsgroup name instead
of "group.name" in the address. For more information, send to
mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu with Subject: help
METHOD 2: Mail the text of your anonymous post to:
mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu - Subject: help
mail2news@news.demon.co.uk -
mail2news@replay.com - see remailer@replay.com
Note on Usenet Posting
----------------------
Use a webmail server to fetch Don Kitchen's helpful document at
"http://www.sabotage.org/~don/mail2news.html" (See "World-Wide Web By
Email" below for help with this). It contains tips on finding out if a
mail server supports your newsgroup, keeping your address away from
spammers, and an updated list of mail-to-news servers.
Searching For Usenet Newsgroups
-------------------------------
Don't know the name of the newsgroup? To search for Usenet groups about
"pets", for example, send email to an Agora or www4mail server (see WWW
section) with this line in the message BODY:
send http://alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links/cgi/news.cgi?pets
Another way to find out about newsgroups that are relevant to your
interests, send email to "liszter@bluemarble.net" with
news "keyword"
in the BODY if the message. The quotes force an exact match. Of course
you must replace "keyword" with your own search word such as
"marketing", "bicycles", etc.
USENET SEARCHES
---------------
A service called REFERENCE.COM makes it possible to search USENET
newsgroups for postings that contain keywords of interest to you. You
can even "subscribe" and receive a daily list of newsgroup postings that
match your search criteria. Send mail to "email-queries@reference.com"
with HELP in the body of note for full details. CURRENTLY NOT WORKING...
WORLD-WIDE WEB (WWW) BY EMAIL
------------------------------
The World-Wide Web is the premier Internet navigational tool - a
hypertext and multimedia system that lets you hop around the Net, read
documents, and access images & sounds linked to a source.
Have you ever heard someone say, "Wow, check out the cool stuff at
http://www.somewhere.com/blah.html" and wondered what in the world they
were talking about? Now you can retrieve WWW documents by email using
an Agora server.
All you need to know is the Uniform Resource Locator (or URL, that long
ugly string starting with "http:", "gopher:", or "ftp:") which defines
the address of the document, and you can retrieve it by sending email
to one of:
Agora Server Address Location Usenet Access?
--------------------------- -------------------- --------------
agora@dna.affrc.go.jp (Japan) Y
agora@kamakura.mss.co.jp (Japan) Y
agora@www.eng.dmu.ac.uk (DMU.UK users ONLY)
agora@uit.no (Norwegian users ONLY)
agora@mx.nsu.nsk.su (NSU.RU users ONLY)
In the body of your note include one of these lines, replacing ""
with the actual URL specification.
send
rsend (to override your return address)
This will send you back the document you requested, with a list of all
the documents referenced within, so that you may make further requests.
To try WWW by email send the following commands to an Agora server:
www
send http://www.w3.org
In a few minutes you should receive the Agora help file and the "WWW
Welcome Page" which will include references to other Web documents
you'll want to explore. Please read the Agora help file, as it contains
answers to many commonly asked questions!
THERE ARE SOME OTHER webmail servers listed below, which run software
other than Agora. They work pretty much the same, but it's a good idea
to request the help file for the server you decide to use.
Note: The GetWeb servers below can handle web pages which contain fill-in
forms. Other webmail servers do not provide this ability.
Address Syntax Comments
----------------------- ---------- ----------------------------
getweb@emailfetch.com GET intermittent since Mar99
getweb@usa.healthnet.org Health personnel ONLY as of 07May99
webmail@www.ucc.ie GO
wwwfmail_pro@wwwfetch.com Fee-based Use 'Subject: info' for help
Note: The webmail servers are sometimes unavailable for days (or weeks)
at a time without explanation. If you get an error or no reply, please
try another address or retry in a day or so.
THE NEW WWW4MAIL servers (combine functions of agora, getweb, and new
browser email integration):
Address Comments
----------------------- ---------------------------------------
www4mail@web.bellanet.org send help in body of a message
www4mail@unganisha.idrc.ca send help in body of a message
www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it send help in body of a message
If you want an up-to-date listing, then look at:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1236/servers.html
WWW SEARCH BY EMAIL
--------------------
There's a lot of great stuff out on the Web, but how do you find it?
Well, just like Archie and Veronica help you search FTP and gopher
sites, there are several search engines that have been developed to
search for information on the Web. But until now, you had to have
direct Internet access to use them.
After a bit of research, I have found that it is possible to use several
WWW search mechanisms by email. Here are some sample queries that you
can use to search via Lycos and WebCrawler. Any of these lines can be
sent to an Agora server (see above) to perform a search. If you're not
interested in frogs, then by all means feel free to use your own
keywords.
For Lycos, append a dot to your keywords to force an exact match, or you
will get a substring search by default. Separate words with a "+"
sign.
http://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?&cat=dir&query=frog+dissection
For WebCrawler searches you must separate words with a "+" sign. All
searches are exact, no trailing dot required.
http://www.webcrawler.com/cgi-bin/WebQuery?searchText=frog+dissection
Another way to access search engines is to send a message to one of the
GETWEB servers (see list above) with a line like this in the message
body:
SEARCH
Replace "engine" with YAHOO, ALTAVISTA, or INFOSEEK, and use your own
search words. Here's an example:
SEARCH YAHOO consumer protection
MAILING LISTS
-------------
There are literally thousands of discussion groups that stay in touch
using email based systems known as "mailing lists". People interested
in a topic "subscribe" to a "list" and then send and receive postings by
email. For information concerning new lists, send email to:
LISTSERV@HYPATIA.CS.WISC.EDU
In the body of your note include only this command:
INFO NEW-LIST
Finding a Mailing List
----------------------
To find out about mailing lists that are relevant to your interests,
send email to "liszter@bluemarble.net" with
search "keyword"
in the BODY if the message. The quotes force an exact match. Of course
you must replace "keyword" with your own search word such as
"marketing", "bicycles", etc.
New in These Parts?
-------------------
If you're new to the Internet, I suggest you subscribe to the HELP-NET
list where you're likely to find answers to your questions. Send the
command:
SUBSCRIBE HELP-NET
in the BODY of a note to LISTSERV@CRCVMS.UNL.EDU, then email your
questions to the list address:
HELP-NET@CRCVMS.UNL.EDU
FINGER BY EMAIL
----------------
"Finger" is a utility that returns information about another user.
Usually it's just boring stuff like last logon, etc., but sometimes
people put fun or useful information in their finger replies. To try
out finger, send this line (in the message BODY) to a webmail server:
send http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?
Use one of the email addresses below instead of ...
nasanews@space.mit.edu coke@cs.cmu.edu
quake@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov copi@oddjob.uchicago.edu
"DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE" BY EMAIL
--------------------------------
There is an email address lookup database at MIT which keeps tabs on
everyone who has posted a message on Usenet. Send email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only this line in the BODY of the
note:
send usenet-addresses/
Specify as much information as you can about the person (lastname,
firstname, userid, site, etc.) to limit the amount of information that
is returned to you. Here's a sample query to find the address of
someone you think may be at Harvard University:
send usenet-addresses/Jane Doe Harvard
WHOIS is another tool that can be used to Search for domain name; NIC
handle; host IP or lastname, firstname.
The default action for Whois, unless directed otherwise with a keyword
(e.g. "domain root"), is to do a very broad search, looking for matches
in many fields: handle, name, or hostname and finding all record types.
Let's say we want to find someone named Ed Krol (a noted 'net
personality). Our Whois query will be addressed to an Agora or www4mail
server (see list in WWW section) and will contain only this line:
http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois?STRING=krol%2Ced
Whois then shows the results in one of two ways: as a full, detailed
display for a single match (with possible subdisplay), or as one- or
two-line summaries for multiple matches.
If all goes well, you'll receive a list something like this:
name: Krol, Edward (not a real person)
organization: Universitry of Foobar, Computer science
address: Campus Box 777
city, state: Urbana, IL 61801-4399
phone: (303) 492-1234
TELNET BY EMAIL
-----------------
Sorry, there is no way to access TELNET sites by email.
A FEW NET-GOODIES
-----------------
Here are some other interesting things you can do by email. (Some of
them are accessible only by email!)
* ANONYMOUS EMAIL
An "anon server" provides a front for sending mail messages and posting
to Usenet newsgroups anonymously, should the need ever arise. To get
instructions send email to help@nym.alias.net or remailer@anon.efga.org
with a Subject: remailer-help
* ASK DR. MATH
Have a math question? Dr. Math answers questions from K-12 students and
their teachers about Mathematics. Write to dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu
* ASK-A-GEOLOGIST
Send your earth-shattering questions to
ask-a-geologist@octopus.wr.usgs.gov and a US Geological Service
scientist will try to help.
* ASK-A-TECH
Send your computer hardware or software support questions to
helpdesk@ask-a-tech.org and this non-profit organization will try to
answer your question.
* BIBLE SEARCH
Search the King James version of the Bible. Examples below can be sent
to an Agora server. Use "+" to specify multiple words; prefix proper
names with "%23"; add "&PHRASE=ON" to find a phrase.
send http://estragon.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/KJV?title=&word=angel+%23Mary
send http://estragon.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/KJV?title=&word=fig+tree&PHRASE=ON
* CANCER DATABASE
To access the National Cancer Institute's database, send email to
cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov with "help" or "spanish" in the message
body.
* COUNTRY CODES
Stumped by those 2-letter country codes in Internet addresses? Send
email to address-codes@newbie.net for an explanation.
The International Email accessibility FAQ is retrievable by email.
Send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only this line in the
BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codes
* CURRENCY CONVERSION
You can get foreign exchange rates for the U.S. dollar and other
currencies by sending this URL to a ww4mail server:
http://cnnfn.com/markets/currencies.html
* EMAIL TO SNAIL-MAIL
Need to get a message to someone in Britain who doesn't have email?
Send it to PaperMail! For full details on this fee-based service, send
email to info@papermail.win-uk.net
* EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
There's a suicide helpline accessible by email. Send your message to
jo@samaritans.org -- No syntax, they have humans! Also any mail to
care@netservs.com returns a listing of hundreds of emotional support
resources on the Internet.
* FINANCIAL AID FAQ
A comprehensive guide to higher education financial aid. Send email to
a web to mail server and retrieve this web page:
send http://www.finaid.org/questions/faq.phtml
* FINDING EMAIL ADDRESSES
For a guide to finding someone's email addresses. Send email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only this line in the BODY of the
note:
send usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses
* FREE HOME PAGE BY EMAIL (For German residents only)
InetWire offers free non-commercial homepages with up to 500KB of
space. Make a zip file with index.htm being the home page, put a URL
something like "http://inetw.com/home/myname" in the Subject line and
then send your zip file as an ATTACHMENT to attach@inetw.com. (If your
email program doesn't support file attachments, you're out of luck.)
* FTPMAIL/WEBMAIL SERVER STATUS
Is your favorite FTPmail/Agora/GetWeb site overloaded or down? Find out
by sending the "get file stats.txt" command to mailserv@netservs.com
* GENE SPLICING AND SEQUENCE ANALYSIS
GRAIL is a suite of tools designed to provide analysis and putative
annotation of DNA sequences both interactively and through the use of
automated computation. To learn how to use this service, send email to
grail@ornl.gov with the word "help" in the body of the message.
* GERMAN <-> ENGLISH TRANSLATION SERVICE
The LEO translation service is now available by email, by sending to
translate@leo.org. The helpfile at http://www.leo.org/dict/mail.html
can be retrieved via webmail.
* INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE
Get tons of info on movies, actors, and directors. Send email to
movie@imdb.com with HELP in the subject line.
* INTERNET TIMELINE
To learn the history of the Internet from 1950 to 1998, send email to
timeline@hobbes.mitre.org
* THE INTERNET TOURBUS
Take a virtual tour of the Internet - hop on The Internet TourBus!
You'll receive a short mailing twice a week highlighting fun and
interesting sites on the Internet. It's absolutely free, and you can
join 80,000 others by sending SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Firstname Lastname in
the BODY of a message to "LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM".
* ISPs BY AREA CODE
For a list of Internet Service Providers in your area code, send this
line to an Agora server: http://thelist.iworld.com/areacode/???.html
(where ???=your area code)
* LANGUAGE TRANSLATION BY EMAIL
Send an e-mail as usual to a foreign language colleague in your native
tongue. In the "Cc:" line, send a carbon copy of the message to the
Universal T-mail Translator. The way you format the address will
determine how the message is translated.
Cc: (Original language)-(Final translation)@T-Mail.com
English (en or an), French (fr), German (ge or de), Italian (it),
Spanish (sp or es), Portuguese (pt or po)
So English to French translation would be en-fr@t-mail.com
* LEARN TO SPEAK GEEK
Get BABEL via ftpmail, a glossary of computer abbreviations and acronyms.
open ftp.access.digex.net
chdir pub/access/ikind/public_html
binary
get babeltxt.zip
quit
* MEDICAL INFORMATION BY EMAIL
Send a blank email message to hnet@usa.healthnet.org to receive a FAQ
which lists locations for medical information that can be accessed by
email methods.
* MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE
The Microsoft knowledge base has articles that can be retrieved by
email. For the index, send email to mshelp@microsoft.com with Subject:
index
* MORE WORD FUN!
The wordserver at wsmith@wordsmith.org will serve up A.Word.A.Day,
Dictionary by Mail, Thesaurus by Mail, Acronym by Mail and Anagram by
Mail. Send blank email for the help file. Merriam-Webster dictionary
offers the word of the day -- To subscribe, send mail to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.WEBSTER.M-W.COM with the command SUBSCRIBE MW-WOD
[your name].
* MORTGAGE/LOAN CALCULATOR
To calculate your monthly loan payment, send this line to an Agora
server:
http://www.interest.com/hugh/calc/simple.cgi?amt=100000&int=8.00&yrs=30
(Change the values for principle, interest and term as appropriate.)
* PLAY GAMES BY EMAIL
Yoyodyne specializes in online games. Send blank email to win@yoyo.com
You can also play games via the PBeM Server, for info, send email to
pbmserv@gamerz.net with Subject: help
* SCOUT REPORT
...is a weekly featuring announcements of new and interesting resources
on the Internet. To subscribe, send email to listserv@cs.wisc.edu with
"Subscribe scout-report Your Name" in the body.
* SENDING A FAX BY EMAIL
The TPC.INT "Remote Printing Experiment" is the grandfather of Internet
faxing services. Send email to tpcfaq@info.tpc.int with no subject and
"help" in the body. For a list of country phone numbers served by this
service, send email to tpccover@info.tpc.int with no subject and nothing
in the body.
You can also get the FAX FAQ via electronic mail. Send email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only this line in the BODY of the
note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/fax-faq
* SENDING MAIL TO VARIOUS NETWORKS
For a guide to communicating with people on the various networks that
make up the Internet, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter
only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/mail/inter-network-guide
* SHAREWARE
The MS-News mailing list is used to announce new files uploaded to
Simtel.Net. To subscribe, send email to listserv@Simtel.Net with this
command in the body of your message: add ms-news
* STATLIB
A system for distributing statistical software, datasets, and
information by electronic mail, FTP, and WWW. To get the index, send
email to statlib@lib.stat.cmu.edu with the one line message "send
index".
* STOCK MARKET QUOTE
To get a stock market quote, send this line to an Agora server:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=xxxx where xxxx is the stock market
symbol.
* TRACK UPS PACKAGES
You can track your UPS packages now thru email. Send an email to
totaltrack@ups.com and in the subject or the body place the complete
tracking number.
* THE USENET ORACLE
A cooperative, anonymous and humorous exchange of questions and
answers. Send email to oracle@cs.indiana.edu for more information.
* U.S. CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE
You can contact the President (president@whitehouse.gov) or Vice
President (vice_president@whitehouse.gov).
* OTHER SOURCES OF US GOV'T INFO:
Send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only these lines in
the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers/part1
send usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers/part2
* VIRTUAL PIZZA!
Order an electronic pizza by email. Send email to
"pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu" with a subject of "pizza help" for details.
* VIRUS PROTECTION SOFTWARE
F-Prot, one of the top PC virus scanners can be requested by email. To
get the current version (uuencoded) send email to
f-prot-update@complex.is with this message body:
send-as: uue
* WEBSTER DICTIONARY LOOKUP
To retrieve the definition of a word, send this line to an Agora
server: send http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster?whatever
* FOR FURTHER READING
For other things you can do with email, send blank email to
email4u@wireworm.com For more details on using web search engines by
email use a web-to-mail server to get this file
send ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/gb/gboyd/wsintro.faq
SOMETHING MISSING?
------------------
This file should be somewhere between 1300 and 1400 lines of text, and
about 58KB in size. If the file you have is much smaller, or says
something like "part 2 of 2" near the top, you're missing something.
Most likely, that's because your mail system has file size quotas that
prevented part 1 from reaching you. Here's the solution:
To get the file in multiple chunks, send to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and
enter only these lines in the BODY of the note:
size 25000
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
The mail server will break up the file into chunks of 25000 bytes and
send them in separate messages. You can change "25000" to another
number if it suits your needs.
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
---------------------
I welcome your feedback on this guide and can be reached at the
following addresses. Send corrections, ideas, suggestions and comments
by email. I'll try to include any new services in future editions of
this guide.
Email : gboyd@netcom.com
Web : http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1236/
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