RFC 2151
A Primer On Internet and TCP/IP Tools and Utilities
6. Information Servers File transfer, remote login, and electronic mail remained the primary applications of the ARPANET/Internet until the early 1990s. But as the Internet user population shifted from hard-core computer researchers and academics to more casual users, easier-to-use tools were needed for the Net to become accepted as a useful resource. That means making things easier to find. This section will discuss some of the early tools that made it easier to locate and access information on the Internet. 6.1. Archie Archie, developed in 1992 at the Computer Science Department at McGill University in Montreal, allows users to find software, data, and other information files that reside at anonymous FTP archive sites; the name of the program, reportedly, is derived from the word "archive" and not from the comic book character. Archie tracks the contents of several thousand anonymous FTP sites containing millions of files. The archie server automatically updates the information from each registered site about once a month, providing relatively up-to-date information without unduly stressing the network. Archie, however, is not as popular as it once was and many sites have not updated their information; as the examples below show, many of the catalog listings are several years old.
Before using archie, you must identify a server address. The sites
below all support archie; most (but not all) archie sites support the
servers command which lists all known archie servers. Due to the
popularity of archie at some sites and its high processing demands,
many sites limit access to non-peak hours and/or limit the number of
simultaneous archie users. Available archie sites include:
archie.au archie.rediris.es
archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at archie.luth.se
archie.univie.ac.at archie.switch.ch
archie.uqam.ca archie.ncu.edu.tw
archie.funet.fi archie.doc.ic.ac.uk
archie.th-darmstadt.de archie.unl.edu
archie.ac.il archie.internic.net
archie.unipi.it archie.rutgers.edu
archie.wide.ad.jp archie.ans.net
archie.kr archie.sura.net
archie.sogang.ac.kr
All archie sites can be accessed using archie client software. Some
archie servers may be accessed using TELNET; when TELNETing to an
archie site, login as archie (you must use lower case) and hit
<ENTER> if a password is requested.
Once connected, the help command assists users in obtaining more
information about using archie. Two more useful archie commands are
prog, used to search for files in the database, and whatis, which
searches for keywords in the program descriptions.
In the accompanying dialogue, the set maxhits command is used to
limit the number of responses to any following prog commands; if this
is not done, the user may get an enormous amount of information. In
this example, the user issues a request to find entries related to
"dilbert"; armed with this information, a user can use anonymous FTP
to examine these directories and files.
The next request is for files with "tcp/ip" as a keyword descriptor.
These responses can be used for subsequent prog commands.
Exit archie using the exit command. At this point, TELNET closes the
connection and control returns to the local host.
Additional information about archie can be obtained by sending e-mail
to Bunyip Information Systems (archie-info@bunyip.com). Client
software is not required to use archie, but can make life a little
easier; some such software can be downloaded using anonymous FTP from
the /pub/archie/clients/ directory at ftp.sura.net (note that the
newest program in this directory is dated June 1994). Most shareware
and commercial archie clients hide the complexity described in this
section; users usually connect to a pre-configured archie server
merely by typing an archie command line.
====================================================================
**C:> telnet archie.unl.edu
SunOS UNIX (crcnis2)
**login: archie
**Password:
Welcome to the ARCHIE server at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln
# Bunyip Information Systems, 1993
**unl-archie> help
These are the commands you can use in help:
. go up one level in the hierarchy
? display a list of valid subtopics at the current level
<newline>
done, ^D, ^C quit from help entirely
<string> help on a topic or subtopic
Eg.
"help show"
will give you the help screen for the "show" command
"help set search"
Will give you the help information for the "search" variable.
The command "manpage" will give you a complete copy of the archie
manual page.
**help> done
**unl-archie> set maxhits 5
**unl-archie> prog dilbert
# Search type: sub.
# Your queue position: 2
# Estimated time for completion: 00:20
Host ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
Last updated 10:08 25 Dec 1993
Location: /multimedia/images/gif/unindexed/931118
FILE -rw-r--r-- 9747 bytes 19:18 17 Nov 1993 dilbert.gif
**unl-archie> whatis tcp/ip
RFC 1065 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
Structure and identification of management information for TCP/IP-based
internets. 1988 August; 21 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1155)
RFC 1066 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
internets. 1988 August; 90 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1156)
RFC 1085 Rose, M.T. ISO presentation
services on top of TCP/IP based internets. 1988 December; 32 p.
RFC 1095 Warrier, U.S.; Besaw, L. Common
Management Information Services and Protocol over TCP/IP (CMOT). 1989
April; 67 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1189)
RFC 1144 Jacobson, V. Compressing TCP/IP
headers for low-speed serial links. 1990 February; 43 p.
RFC 1147 Stine, R.H.,ed. FYI on a
network management tool catalog: Tools for monitoring and debugging
TCP/IP internets and interconnected devices. 1990 April; 126 p. (Also
FYI 2)
RFC 1155 Rose, M.T.; McCloghrie, K.
Structure and identification of management information for TCP/IP-based
internets. 1990 May; 22 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1065)
RFC 1156 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
internets. 1990 May; 91 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1066)
RFC 1158 Rose, M.T.,ed. Management
Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based internets:
MIB-II. 1990 May; 133 p.
RFC 1180 Socolofsky, T.J.; Kale, C.J.
TCP/IP tutorial. 1991 January; 28 p.
RFC 1195 Callon, R.W. Use of OSI
IS-IS for routing in TCP/IP and dual environments. 1990 December; 65 p.
RFC 1213 McCloghrie, K.; Rose,M.T.,eds.
Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
internets:MIB-II. 1991 March; 70 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1158)
log_tcp Package to monitor tcp/ip connections
ping PD version of the ping(1) command. Send ICMP
ECHO requests to a host on the network (TCP/IP) to see whether it's
reachable or not
**unl-archie> exit # Bye. Connection #0 closed C:> ==================================================================== 6.2. Gopher The Internet Gopher protocol was developed at the University of Minnesota's Microcomputer Center in 1991, as a distributed information search and retrieval tool for the Internet. Gopher is described in RFC 1436 [1]; the name derives from the University's mascot. Gopher provides a tool so that publicly available information at a host can be organized in a hierarchical fashion using simple text descriptions, allowing files to be perused using a simple menu system. Gopher also allows a user to view a file on demand without requiring additional file transfer protocols. In addition, Gopher introduced the capability of linking sites on the Internet, so that each Gopher site can be used as a stepping stone to access other sites and reducing the amount of duplicate information and effort on the network. Any Gopher site can be accessed using Gopher client software (or a WWW browser). In many cases, users can access Gopher by TELNETing to a valid Gopher location; if the site provides a remote Gopher client, the user will see a text-based, menu interface. The number of Gopher sites grew rapidly between 1991 and 1994, although growth tapered due to the introduction of the Web; in any case, most Gopher sites have a menu item that will allow you to identify other Gopher sites. If using TELNET, login with the username gopher (this must be in lowercase); no password is required. In the sample dialogue below, the user attaches to the Gopher server at the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC) by TELNETing to ds.internic.net. With the menu interface shown here, the user merely follows the prompts. Initially, the main menu will appear. Selecting item 3 causes Gopher to seize and display the "InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)" menu; move to the desired menu item by typing the item number or by moving the pointer (-->) down to the desired entry using the DOWN-ARROW key on the keyboard, and then hitting ENTER. To quit the program at any time, press q (quit); ? and u will provide help or go back up to the previous menu, respectively. Users may also search for strings within files using the / command or download the file being interrogated using the D command.
Menu item 1 within the first submenu (selected in the dialogue shown
here) is titled "InterNIC Registration Archives." As its submenu
implies, this is a place to obtain files containing the InterNIC's
domain registration policies, domain data, registration forms, and
other information related to registering names and domains on the
Internet.
====================================================================
**SMCVAX$ telnet ds.internic.net
UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (ds2)
**login: gopher
********************************************************************
Welcome to the InterNIC Directory and Database Server.
********************************************************************
Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
Home Gopher server: localhost
--> 1. About InterNIC Directory and Database Services/
2. InterNIC Directory and Database Services (AT&T)/
3. InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)/
4. README
Press ? for Help, q to Quit Page: 1/1
**View item number: 3
Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)
--> 1. InterNIC Registration Archives/
2. Whois Searches (InterNIC IP, ASN, DNS, and POC Registry) <?>
Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
**View item number: 1
Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
InterNIC Registration Archives
--> 1. archives/
2. domain/
3. netinfo/
4. netprog/
5. policy/
6. pub/
7. templates/
Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1 **q **Really quit (y/n) ? y Connection closed by Foreign Host SMCVAX$ ==================================================================== 6.3. VERONICA, JUGHEAD, and WAIS The problem with being blessed with so much information from FTP, archie, Gopher, and other sources is exactly that -- too much information. To make it easier for users to locate the system on which their desired information resides, a number of other tools have been created. VERONICA (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives) was developed at the University of Nevada at Reno as an archie- like adjunct to Gopher. As the number of Gopher sites quickly grew after its introduction, it became increasingly harder to find information in gopherspace since Gopher was designed to search a single database at a time. VERONICA maintains an index of titles of Gopher items and performs a keyword search on all of the Gopher sites that it has knowledge of and access to, obviating the need for the user to perform a menu-by-menu, site-by-site search for information. When a user selects an item from the menu of a VERONICA search, "sessions" are automatically established with the appropriate Gopher servers, and a list of data items is returned to the originating Gopher client in the form of a Gopher menu so that the user can access the files. VERONICA is available as an option on many Gopher servers. Another Gopher-adjunct is JUGHEAD (Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And Display). JUGHEAD supports key word searches and the use of logical operators (AND, OR, and NOT). The result of a JUGHEAD search is a display of all menu items which match the search string which are located in the University of Manchester and UMIST Information Server, working from a static database that is re-created every day. JUGHEAD is available from many Gopher sites, although VERONICA may be a better tool for global searches. The Wide Area Information Server (WAIS, pronounced "ways") was initiated jointly by Apple Computer, Dow Jones, KMPG Peat Marwick, and Thinking Machines Corp. It is a set of free-ware, share-ware, and commercial software products for a wide variety of hardware/software platforms, which work together to help users find information on the Internet. WAIS provides a single interface through which a user can
access many different information databases. The user interface allows a query to be formulated in English and the WAIS server will automatically choose the appropriate databases to search. Further information about WAIS can be obtained by reading the WAIS FAQ, from host rtfm.mit.edu in file /pub/usenet/news.answers/wais-faq. 7. The World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW) is thought (erroneously) by many to be the same thing as the Internet. But the confusion, in many ways, is justified; by early 1996, the WWW accounted for over 40% of all of the traffic on the Internet. In addition, the number of hosts on the Internet named www has grown from several hundred in mid-1994 to 17,000 in mid-1995 to 212,000 in mid-1996 to over 410,000 by early 1997. The Web has made information on the Internet accessible to users of all ages and computer skill levels. It has provided a mechanism so that nearly anyone can become a content provider. According to some, growth in the number of WWW users is unparalleled by any other event in human history. The WWW was developed in the early 1990s at the CERN Institute for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland. The Web was designed to combine aspects of information retrieval with multimedia communications, unlike archie and Gopher, which were primarily used for the indexing of text-based files. The Web allows users to access information in many different types of formats, including text, sound, image, animation, and video. WWW treats all searchable Internet files as hypertext documents. Hypertext is a term which merely refers to text that contains pointers to other text, allowing a user reading one document to jump to another document for more information on a given topic, and then return to the same location in the original document. WWW hypermedia documents are able to employ images, sound, graphics, video, and animation in addition to text. To access WWW servers, users must run client software called a browser. The browser and server use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [3]. WWW documents are written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) [2, 20], a simple text-based formatting language that is hardware and software platform-independent. Users point the browser at some location using a shorthand format called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which allows a WWW servers to obtain files from any location on the public Internet using a variety of protocols, including HTTP, FTP, Gopher, and TELNET. Mosaic, developed in 1994 at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, was the first widely-used browser. Because it was available at no cost over the Internet via anonymous FTP, and had a
version for Windows, Mac, and UNIX systems, Mosaic was probably the single reason that the Web attracted so many users so quickly. The most commonly used browsers today include the Netscape Navigator (http://www.netscape.com), Microsoft's Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com), and NCSA Mosaic (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/). The WWW is ideally suited to a windows environment, or other point- and-click graphical user interface. Nevertheless, several text-based Web browsers do exist, although their usefulness is limited if trying to obtain graphical images, or audio or video clips. One text-based Web browser is Lynx, and an example of its use is shown below. Items in square brackets in the sample dialogue are Lynx's way of indicating an image or other display that cannot be shown on an ASCII terminal. ==================================================================== **gck@zoo.uvm.edu> lynx www.hill.com Getting http://www.hill.com/ Looking up www.hill.com. Making HTTP connection to www.hill.com.Sending HTTP request. HTTP request sent; waiting for response.Read 176 bytes of data. 512 of 2502 bytes of data. 1024 of 2502 bytes of data. 536 2048 502 Data transfer complete Hill Associates [INLINE] Hill Associates, Inc. Leaders in Telecommunications Training and Education Worldwide _________________________________________________________________ Hill Associates is an international provider of voice and data telecommunications training and education. We cover the full breadth of the field, including telephony, computer networks, ISDN, X.25 and fast packet technologies (frame relay, SMDS, ATM), wireless, TCP/IP and the Internet, LANs and LAN interconnection, legacy networks, multimedia and virtual reality, broadband services, regulation, service strategies, and network security. Hill Associates' products and services include instructor-led, computer-based (CBT), and hands-on workshop courses. Courseware distribution media include audio tape, video tape, CD-ROM, and 3.5" disks (PC).
_________________________________________________________________ Hill Associates products, services, and corporate information * About Hill Associates * HAI Products and Services Catalog * Datacomm/2000-ED Series * Contacting Hill Associates * Employment Opportunities * HAI Personnel Home Pages On-line information resources from Hill Associates * HAI Telecommunications Acronym List * Articles, Books, and On-Line Presentations by HAI Staff * GCK's Miscellaneous Sites List... Hill Associates is host to the: * IEEE Local Computer Networks Conference Home Page... * Vermont Telecommunications Resource Center ________________________________________________________________ Please send any comments or suggestions to the HAI Webmaster. Come back again soon! Information at this site (c) 1994-1997 Hill Associates. Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back. H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list **G **URL to open: http://www.bbn.com Getting http://www.bbn.com/ Looking up www.bbn.com. Making HTTP connection to www.bbn.com.Sending HTTP request. HTTP request sent; waiting for response.Read 119 bytes of data. 500 1000 bytes of data. 2 5 925 Data transfer complete BBN On The World Wide Web
[LINK] BBN Reports Fourth-Quarter and Year-End 1996 Results [INLINE] [ISMAP] [ISMAP] [LINK] [INLINE] Who Won Our Sweepstakes How The Noc Solves Problems Noc Noc Who's There BBN Planet Network Map [LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK] [LINK] Contact BBN Planet Directions to BBN Text only index of the BBN Web site | Corporate Disclaimer Send questions and comments about our site to Webmaster@bbn.com (c) 1996 BBN Corporation Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back. H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list **Q gck@zoo.uvm.edu> ==================================================================== 7.1. Uniform Resource Locators As more and more protocols have become available to identify files, archive and server sites, news lists, and other information resources on the Internet, it was inevitable that some shorthand would arise to make it easier to designate these sources. The common shorthand format is called the Uniform Resource Locator. The list below provides information on how the URL format should be interpreted for the protocols and resources that will be discussed in this document. A complete description of the URL format may be found in [4].
file://host/directory/file-name
Identifies a specific file. E.g., the file htmlasst in the edu
directory at host ftp.cs.da would be denoted, using the full URL
form: <URL:file://ftp.cs.da/edu/htmlasst>.
ftp://user:password@host:port/directory/file-name
Identifies an FTP site. E.g.:
ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Crypto/*.
gopher://host:port/gopher-path
Identifies a Gopher site and menu path; a "00" at the start of
the path indicates a directory and "11" indicates a file. E.g.:
gopher://info.umd.edu:901/00/info/Government/Factbook92.
http://host:port/directory/file-name?searchpart
Identifies a WWW server location. E.g.:
http://info.isoc.org/home.html.
mailto:e-mail_address
Identifies an individual's Internet mail address. E.g.:
mailto:s.shepard@hill.com.
telnet://user:password@host:port/
Identifies a TELNET location (the trailing "/" is optional).
E.g.: telnet://envnet:henniker@envnet.gsfc.nasa.gov.
7.2. User Directories on the Web
While finding users on the Internet remains somewhat like alchemy if
using the tools and utilities mentioned earlier, the Web has added a
new dimension to finding people. Since 1995, many telephone companies
have placed national white and yellow page telephone directories on-
line, accessible via the World Wide Web.
For a while, it seemed that the easiest and most reliable approach to
finding people's e-mail address on the Internet was to look up their
telephone number on the Web, call them, and ask for their e-mail
address! More recently, however, many third parties are augmenting
the standard telephone directory with an e-mail directory. These
services primarily rely on users voluntarily registering, resulting
in incomplete databases because most users don't know about all of
the services. Nevertheless, some of the personal directory services
available via the Web with which e-mail addresses (and telephone
numbers) can be found include Four11 Directory Services
(http://www.Four11.com/), Excite
(http://www.excite.com/Reference/locators.html), and Yahoo! People
Search (http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/).
In addition, the Knowbot Information Service (KIS), CNRI's automated username database search tool described earlier in this document, is also available on the Web, at http://info.cnri.reston.va.us/kis.html. Users can select several options for the KIS search, including the InterNIC, MILNET, MCImail, and Latin American Internic databases; UNIX finger and whois servers; and X.500 databases. 7.3. Other Service Accessible Via the Web Many of the other utilities described earlier in this document can also be accessed via the WWW. In general, the Web browser acts as a viewer to a remote client rather than requiring specialized software on the user's system. Several sites provide DNS information, obviating the need for a user to have a local DNS client such as NSLOOKUP. The hosts http://ns1.milepost.com/dns/ and http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/dig.html are among the best DNS sites, allowing the user to access all DNS information. The site http://www.bankes.com/nslookup.htm allows users to do multiple, sequential searches at a given domain. Other Web sites providing simple DNS name/address translation services include http://rhinoceros.cs.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp/dns.html, http://www.engin.umich.edu/htbin/DNSquery, http://www.lublin.pl/cgi- bin/ns/nsgate, and http://www.trytel.com/cgi-bin/weblookup. Ping is another service available on the Web. The http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/ping.html page allows a user to select a host name, number of times to ping (1-10), and number of seconds between each ping (1-10), and returns a set of summary statistics. Other Web-based ping sites include http://www.net.cmu.edu/bin/ping (sends ten pings, and reports the times and min/max/avg summary statistics) and http://www.uia.ac.be/cc/ping.html (indicates whether the target host is alive or not). Traceroute is also available on the Web. Unfortunately, these servers trace the route from their host to a host that the user chooses, rather than from the user's host to the target. Nevertheless, interesting route information can be found at http://www.net.cmu.edu/bin/traceroute. Traceroute service and a list of a number of other traceroute sites on the Web can be found at http://www.lublin.pl/cgi-bin/trace/traceroute.
Access to archie is also available via the WWW, where your browser acts as the graphical interface to an archie server. To find a list of archie servers, and to access them via the Web, point your browser at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/FTP_Sites/ Searching/Archie/. Finally, even Finger can be found on the World Wide Web; check out http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/finger.html. 8. Discussion Lists and Newsgroups Among the most useful features of the Internet are the discussion lists that have become available to allow individuals to discuss topics of mutual concern. Discussion list topics range from SCUBA diving and home brewing of beer to AIDS research and foreign policy. Several, naturally, deal specifically with the Internet, TCP/IP protocols, and the impact of new technologies. Most of the discussion lists accessible from the Internet are unmoderated, meaning that anyone can send a message to the list's central repository and the message will then be automatically forwarded to all subscribers of the list. These lists provide very fast turn-around between submission of a message and delivery, but often result in a lot of messages (including inappropriate junk mail, or "spam"). A moderated list has an extra step; a human list moderator examines all messages before they are forwarded to ensure that the messages are appropriate to the list and not needlessly inflammatory! Users should be warned that some lists generate a large number of messages each day. Before subscribing to too many lists, be sure that you are aware of local policies and/or charges governing access to discussion lists and e-mail storage. 8.1. Internet Discussion Lists Mail can be sent to almost all Internet lists at an address with the following form: list_name@host_name The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or handle any other administrative matter is to send a message to the list administrator; do not send administrivia to the main list address! The list administrator can usually be found at: list_name-REQUEST@host_name
To subscribe to a list, it is often enough to place the word
"subscribe" in the main body of the message, although a line with the
format:
subscribe list_name your_full_name
will satisfy most mail servers. A similar message may be used to get
off a list; just use the word "unsubscribe" followed by the list
name. Not every list follows this convention, but it is a safe bet if
you don't have better information!
8.2. LISTSERV
A large set of discussion groups is maintained using a program called
LISTSERV. LISTSERV is a service provided widely on BITNET and EARN,
although it is also available to Internet users. A LISTSERV User
Guide can be found on the Web at http://www.earn.net/lug/notice.html.
Mail can be sent to most LISTSERV lists at an address with the
following form:
list_name@host_name
The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or
handle any other administrative matter is to send commands in a
message to the LISTSERV server; do not send administrivia to the main
list address! The list server can usually be found at:
LISTSERV@host_name
LISTSERV commands are placed in the main body of e-mail messages sent
to an appropriate list server location. Once you have found a list of
interest, you can send a message to the appropriate address with any
appropriate command, such as:
subscribe list_name your_full_name Subscribe to a list
unsubscribe list_name Unsubscribe from a list
help Get help & a list of commands
index Get a list of LISTSERV files
get file_name Obtain a file from the server
8.3. Majordomo
Majordomo is another popular list server for Internet discussion
lists. The Web site http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/ has a
large amount of information about Majordomo.
Mail is sent to Majordomo lists using the same general address format
as above:
list_name@host_name
The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or
handle any other administrative matter is to send a message to the
Majordomo list server; do not send administrivia to the main list
address! The Majordomo server can usually be found at:
MAJORDOMO@host_name
Majordomo commands are placed in the main body of e-mail messages
sent to an appropriate list server location. Available commands
include:
help Get help & a list of commands
subscribe list_name your_e-mail
Subscribe to a list (E-mail address is optional)
unsubscribe list_name your_e-mail
Unsubscribe from a list (E-mail address is optional)
info list Sends an introduction about the specified list
lists Get a list of lists served by this Majordomo server
8.4. Usenet
Usenet, also known as NETNEWS or Usenet news, is another information
source with its own set of special interest mailing lists organized
into newsgroups. Usenet originated on UNIX systems but has migrated
to many other types of hosts. Usenet clients, called newsreaders, use
the Network News Transfer Protocol [13] and are available for
virtually any operating system; several web browsers, in fact, have
this capability built in.
While Usenet newsgroups are usually accessible at Internet sites, a
prospective Usenet client host must have appropriate newsreader
software to be able to read news. Users will have to check with their
local host or network administrator to find out what Usenet
newsgroups are locally available, as well as the local policies for
using them.
Usenet newsgroup names are hierarchical in nature. The first part of
the name, called the hierarchy, provides an indication about the
general subject area. There are two types of hierarchies, called
mainstream and alternative; the total number of newsgroups is in the
thousands. The news.announce.newusers newsgroup is a good place for
new Usenet users to find a detailed introduction to the use of
Usenet, as well as an introduction to its culture.
Usenet mainstream hierarchies are established by a process that
requires the approval of a majority of Usenet members. Most sites
that receive a NETNEWS feed receive all of these hierarchies, which
include:
comp Computers
misc Miscellaneous
news Network news
rec Recreation
sci Science
soc Social issues
talk Various discussion lists
The alternative hierarchies include lists that may be set up at any
site that has the server software and disk space. These lists are not
formally part of Usenet and, therefore, may not be received by all
sites getting NETNEWS. The alternative hierarchies include:
alt Alternate miscellaneous discussion lists
bionet Biology, medicine, and life sciences
bit BITNET discussion lists
biz Various business-related discussion lists
ddn Defense Data Network
gnu GNU lists
ieee IEEE information
info Various Internet and other networking information
k12 K-12 education
u3b AT&T 3B computers
vmsnet Digital's VMS operating system
8.5 Finding Discussion Lists and Newsgroups
Armed with the rules for signing up for a discussion list or
accessing a newsgroup, how does one find an appropriate list given
one's interests?
There are tens of thousands of e-mail discussion lists on the
Internet. One List of Lists may be found using anonymous FTP at
ftp://sri.com/netinfo/interest-groups.txt; the List of Lists can be
searched using a Web browser by going to
http://catalog.com/vivian/interest-group-search.html. Other places to
look are the Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists index at
http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/byname.html and the LISZT
Directory of E-Mail Discussion Groups at http://www.liszt.com.
To obtain a list of LISTSERV lists, send e-mail to listserv@bitnic.cren.net with the command lists global in the body of the message. Alternatively, look on the Web at http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/index.html. The Web site http://www.liszt.com has a Mailing Lists Database of lists served by LISTSERV and Majordomo. There are also thousands of Usenet newsgroups. One Usenet archive can be found at gopher://rtfm.mit.edu/11//pub/usenet/news.answers; see the /active-newsgroups and /alt-hierarchies subdirectories. Usenet news may also be read at gopher://gopher.bham.ac.uk/11/Usenet. A good Usenet search facility can be found at DejaNews at http://www.dejanews.com/; messages can also be posted to Usenet newsgroups from this site. Note that there is often some overlap between Usenet newsgroups and Internet discussion lists. Some individuals join both lists in these circumstances or, often, there is cross-posting of messages. Some Usenet newsgroup discussions are forwarded onto an Internet mailing list by an individual site to provide access to those users who do not have Usenet available. 9. Internet Documentation To fully appreciate and understand what is going on within the Internet community, users might wish to obtain the occasional Internet specification. The main body of Internet documents are Request for Comments (RFCs), although a variety of RFC subsets have been defined for various specific purposes. The sections below will describe the RFCs and other documentation, and how to get them. The Internet standardization process is alluded to in the following sections. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the guiding body for Internet standards; their Web site is http://www.ietf.org. The IETF operates under the auspices of the Internet Society (ISOC), which has a Web site at http://www.isoc.org. For complete, up-to-date information on obtaining Internet documentation, go to the InterNIC's Web site at http://ds.internic.net/ds/dspg0intdoc.html. The IETF's history and role in the Internet today is described in Kessler [15]. For information on the organizations involved in the IETF standards process, see RFC 2028 [11]. For information on the relationship between the IETF and ISOC, see RFC 2031 [12]. 9.1. Request for Comments (RFCs) RFCs are the body of literature comprising Internet protocols, standards, research questions, hot topics, humor (especially those dated 1 April), and general information. Each RFC is uniquely issued
a number which is never reused or reissued; if a document is revised,
it is given a new RFC number and the old RFC is said to be obsoleted.
Announcements are sent to the RFC-DIST mailing list whenever a new
RFC is issued; anyone may join this list by sending e-mail to
majordomo@zephyr.isi.edu with the line "subscribe rfc-dist" in the
body of the message.
RFCs may be obtained through the mail (i.e., postal service), but it
is easier and faster to get them on-line. One easy way to obtain RFCs
on-line is to use RFC-INFO, an e-mail-based service to help users
locate and retrieve RFCs and other Internet documents. To use the
service, send e-mail to rfc-info@isi.edu and leave the Subject: field
blank; commands that may go in the main body of the message include:
help (Help file)
help: ways_to_get_rfcs (Help file on how to get RFCs)
RETRIEVE: RFC
Doc-ID: RFCxxxx (Retrieve RFC xxxx; use all 4
digits)
LIST: RFC (List all RFCs...)
[options] (...[matching the following
options])
KEYWORDS: xxx (Title contains string "xxx")
AUTHOR: xxx (Written by "xxx")
ORGANIZATION: xxx (Issued by company "xxx")
DATED-AFTER: mmm-dd-yyyy
DATED-BEFORE: mmm-dd-yyyy
OBSOLETES: RFCxxxx (List RFCs obsoleting RFC xxxx)
Another RFC e-mail server can be found at the InterNIC. To use this
service, send an e-mail message to mailserv@ds.internic.net, leaving
the Subject: field blank. In the main body of the message, use one or
more of the following commands:
help (Help file)
file /ftp/rfc/rfcNNNN.txt (Text version of RFC NNNN)
file /ftp/rfc/rfcNNNN.ps (Postscript version of RFC NNNN)
document-by-name rfcNNNN (Text version of RFC NNNN)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE 1. Primary RFC Repositories.
HOST ADDRESS DIRECTORY
ds.internic.net rfc
nis.nsf.net internet/documents/rfc
nisc.jvnc.net rfc
ftp.isi.edu in-notes
wuarchive.wustl.edu info/rfc
src.doc.ic.ac.uk rfc
ftp.ncren.net rfc
ftp.sesqui.net pub/rfc
nis.garr.it mirrors/RFC
funet.fi rfc
munnari.oz.au rfc
-------------------------------------------------------------------
To obtain an RFC via anonymous FTP, connect to one of the RFC
repositories listed in Table 1 using FTP. After connecting, change to
the appropriate RFC directory (as shown in Table 1) using the cd
command. To obtain a particular file, use the get command:
GET RFC-INDEX.TXT local_name (RFC Index)
GET RFCxxxx.TXT local_name (Text version of RFC xxxx)
GET RFCxxxx.PS local_name (Postscript version of RFC
xxxx)
The RFC index, or a specific reference to an RFC, will indicate
whether the RFC is available in ASCII text (.txt) or Postscript (.ps)
format. By convention, all RFCs are available in ASCII while some are
also available in Postscript where use of graphics and/or different
fonts adds more information or clarity; an increasing number are also
being converted to HTML. Be aware that the index file is very large,
containing the citing for over 2,000 documents. Note that not all
RFCs numbered below 698 (July 1975) are available on-line.
Finally, the InterNIC's Web site at
http://ds.internic.net/ds/dspg1intdoc.html contains the RFC index and
a complete set of RFCs. More information about Web-based RFC servers
can be found at http://www.isi.edu/rfc-editor/rfc-sources.html.
The sample dialogue below, although highly abbreviated, shows a user
obtaining RFC 1594 (Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User"
Questions) using e-mail and anonymous FTP.
==================================================================== **SMCVAX$ mail **MAIL> send **To: in%"rfc-info@isi.edu" Subject: Enter your message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, CTRL/C to quit **retrieve: rfc **doc-id: rfc1594 **^Z **MAIL> exit **SMCVAX$ ftp ds.internic.net **Username: anonymous **Password: **NIC.DDN.MIL> cd rfc **NIC.DDN.MIL> get rfc1594.txt rfc-1594.txt **NIC.DDN.MIL> exit SMCVAX$ ==================================================================== 9.2. Internet Standards RFCs describe many aspects of the Internet. By the early 1990s, however, so many specifications of various protocols had been written that it was not always clear as to which documents represented standards for the Internet. For that reason, a subset of RFCs have been designated as STDs to identify them as Internet standards. Unlike RFC numbers that are never reused, STD numbers always refer to the latest version of the standard. UDP, for example, would be completely identified as "STD-6/RFC-768." Note that STD numbers refer to a standard, which is not necessarily a single document; STD 19, for example, is the NetBIOS Service Protocols standard comprising RFCs 1001 and 1002, and a complete citation for this standard would be "STD-19/RFC-001/RFC-1002." The availability of new STDs is announced on the RFC-DIST mailing list. STD-1 [23] always refers to the latest list of "Internet Official Protocol Standards". The Internet standards process is described in RFC 2026 [5] and STD notes are explained in RFC 1311 [24]. STDs can be obtained as RFCs via anonymous FTP from any RFC repository. In addition, some RFC sites (such as ds.internic.net) provide an STD directory so that STD documents can be found in the path /STD/xx.TXT, where xx refers to the STD number.
STD documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in Section 9.1. STDs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using the RETRIEVE: STD and Doc-ID: STDxxxx commands. Also, check out the InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/std/ for the STD index and a complete set of STDs. 9.3. For Your Information Documents The For Your Information (FYI) series of RFCs provides Internet users with information about many topics related to the Internet. FYI topics range from historical to explanatory to tutorial, and are aimed at the wide spectrum of people that use the Internet. The FYI series includes answers to frequently asked questions by both beginning and seasoned users of the Internet, an annotated bibliography of Internet books, and an explanation of the domain name system. Like the STDs, an FYI number always refers to the latest version of an FYI. FYI 4, for example, refers to the answers to commonly asked questions by new Internet users; its complete citation would be "FYI-4/RFC-1594." The FYI notes are explained in FYI 1 [18]. FYIs can be obtained as RFCs via anonymous FTP from any RFC repository. In addition, some RFC sites (such as ds.internic.net) provide an FYI directory so that FYI documents can be found in the path /FYI/xx.TXT, where xx refers to the FYI number. FYI documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in Section 9.1. FYIs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using the RETRIEVE: FYI and Doc-ID: FYIxxxx commands. Also, check out the InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/fyi/ for the FYI index and a complete set of FYIs. 9.4. Best Current Practices Standards track RFCs are formally part of the IETF standards process, subject to peer review, and intended to culminate in an official Internet Standard. Other RFCs are published on a less formal basis and are not part of the IETF process. To provide a mechanism of publishing relevant technical information which it endorsed, the IETF created a new series of RFCs, called the Best Current Practices (BCP) series. BCP topics include variances from the Internet standards process and IP address allocation in private networks.
Like the STDs and FYIs, a BCP number always refers to the latest version of a BCP. BCP 5, for example, describes an IP address allocation plan for private networks; its complete citation would be "BCP-5/RFC-1918." The BCP process is explained in BCP 1 [25]. BCP documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in Section 9.1. BCPs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using the RETRIEVE: BCP and Doc-ID: BCPxxxx commands. Also, check out the RFC Editor's Web site at http://www.isi.edu/rfc-editor/ for the BCP index and a complete set of BCPs. 9.5. RARE Technical Reports RARE, the Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne (Association of European Research Networks), has a charter to promote and participate in the creation of a high-quality European computer communications infrastructure for the support of research endeavors. RARE member networks use Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols and TCP/IP. To promote a closer relationship between RARE and the IETF, RARE Technical Reports (RTRs) have also been published as RFCs since the summer of 1993. RTR documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in Section 9.1. RTRs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using the RETRIEVE: RTR and Doc-ID: RTRxxxx commands. Also, check out the InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/rtr/ for the RTR index and a complete set of RTRs. Finally, RTRs may be obtained via anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.rare.nl/rare/publications/rtr/. 10. Perusing the Internet This guide is intended to provide the reader with a rudimentary ability to use the utilities that are provided by TCP/IP and the Internet. By now, it is clear that the user's knowledge, ability, and willingness to experiment are about the only limits to what can be accomplished. There are several books that will help you get started finding sites on the Internet, including The INTERNET Yellow Pages [9]. But much more timely and up-to-date information can be found on the Internet itself, using such search tools as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), Excite (http://www.excite.com), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com), WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com), and AltaAvista (http://altavista.digital.com).
There are several other sources that cite locations from which to access specific information about a wide range of subjects using such tools as FTP, Telnet, Gopher, and WWW. One of the best periodic lists, and archives, is through the Scout Report, a weekly publication by the InterNIC's Net Scout Services Project at the University of Wisconsin's Computer Science Department. To receive the Scout Report by e-mail each week, join the mailing list by sending email to listserv@lists.internic.net; place the line subscribe scout-report your_full_name in the body of the message to receive the text version or use subscribe scout-report-html your_full_name to receive the report in HTML. The Scout Report is also available on the Web at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report and http://rs.internic.net/scout/report, or via anonymous FTP at ftp://rs.internic.net/scout/. Another list is Yanoff's Internet Services List, which may be found at http://www.spectracom.com/islist/ or ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/inet.services.txt. Gary Kessler, one of the co-author's of this document, maintains his own eclectic Miscellaneous Sites List at http://www.together.net/~kessler/gck_site.html. If you are looking for Internet-specific information, one good starting point is http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/. The InterNIC is another valuable resource, with their Scout Report and Scout Toolkit (http://rs.internic.net/scout/toolkit). There is also a fair amount of rudimentary tutorial information available on the Internet. The InterNIC cosponsors "The 15 Minute Series" (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/15min/), a collection of free, modular, and extensible training materials on specific Internet topics. ROADMAP96 (http://www.ua.edu/~crispen/roadmap.html) is a free, 27-lesson Internet training workshop over e-mail. More books and specialized articles came out about the Internet in 1993 and 1994 than in all previous years (squared!), and that trend has seemed to continue into 1995, 1996, and beyond. Three books are worth notable mention because they do not directly relate to finding your way around, or finding things on, the Internet. Hafner and Lyon [8] have written Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, a history of the development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), packet switching, and the ARPANET, focusing primarily on the 1960s and 1970s. While culminating with the APRANET's 25th Anniversary in 1994, its main thrusts are on the groups building the ARPANET backbone (largely BBN) and the host-to- host application and communication protocols (largely the Network Working Group). Salus' book, Casting The Net: From ARPANET to
INTERNET and beyond... [28], goes into the development of the network from the perspective of the people, protocols, applications, and networks. Including a set of "diversions," his book is a bit more whimsical than Hafner & Lyon's. Finally, Carl Malamud has written a delightful book called Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue [17], chronicling not the history of the Internet as much as a subset of the people currently active in building and defining it. This book will not teach you how to perform an anonymous FTP file transfer nor how to use Gopher, but provides insights about our network (and Carl's gastro-pathology) that no mere statistics can convey. 11. Acronyms and Abbreviations ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange BCP Best Current Practices BITNET Because It's Time Network DDN Defense Data Network DNS Domain Name System EARN European Academic Research Network FAQ Frequently Asked Questions list FTP File Transfer Protocol FYI For Your Information series of RFCs HTML Hypertext Markup Language HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol IP Internet Protocol ISO International Organization for Standardization NetBIOS Network Basic Input/Output System NIC Network Information Center NICNAME Network Information Center name service NSF National Science Foundation NSFNET National Science Foundation Network RFC Request For Comments RARE Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne RTR RARE Technical Reports STD Internet Standards series of RFCs TCP Transmission Control Protocol TTL Time-To-Live UDP User Datagram Protocol URL Uniform Resource Locator WAIS Wide Area Information Server WWW World Wide Web
12. Security Considerations Security issues are not discussed in this memo. 13. Acknowledgments Our thanks are given to all sites that we accessed or otherwise used system resources in preparation for this document. We also appreciate the comments and suggestions from our students and members of the Internet community, particularly after the last version of this document was circulated, including Mark Delany and the rest of the gang at the Australian Public Access Network Association, Margaret Hall (BBN), John Martin (RARE), Tom Maufer (3Com), Carol Monaghan (Hill Associates), Michael Patton (BBN), N. Todd Pritsky (Hill Associates), and Brian Williams. Special thanks are due to Joyce Reynolds for her continued encouragement and direction. 14. References [1] Anklesaria, F., M. McCahill, P. Lindner, D. Johnson, D. Torrey, and B. Alberti, "The Internet Gopher Protocol," RFC 1436, University of Minnesota, March 1993. [2] Berners-Lee, T. and D. Connolly, "Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0," RFC 1866, MIT/W3C, November 1995. [3] _____, R. Fielding, and H. Frystyk, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.0," RFC 1945, MIT/LCS, UC Irvine, MIT/LCS, May 1996. [4] _____, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill, Editors, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)," RFC 1738, CERN, Xerox Corp., University of Minnesota, December 1994. [5] Bradner, S. "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3," RFC 2026, Harvard University, October 1996. [6] Comer, D. Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol. I: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture, 3/e. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice- Hall, 1995. [7] Feit, S. TCP/IP: Architecture, Protocols, and Implementation with IPv6 and IP Security, 2/e. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. [8] Hafner, K. and M. Lyon. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
[9] Hahn, H. and R. Stout. The Internet Yellow Pages, 3/e. Berkeley (CA): Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1996. [10] Harrenstien, K., M. Stahl, and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS," RFC 954, SRI, October 1985. [11] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner. "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process," RFC 2028, Digital, Harvard University, October 1996. [12] Huizer, E. "IETF-ISOC Relationship," RFC 2031, SEC, October 1996. [13] Kantor, B. and P. Lapsley. "Network News Transfer Protocol," RFC 977, U.C. San Diego, U.C. Berkeley, February 1986. [14] Kessler, G.C. "An Overview of TCP/IP Protocols and the Internet." URL: http://www.hill.com/library/tcpip.html. Last accessed: 17 February 1997 [15] _____. "IETF-History, Background, and Role in Today's Internet." URL: http://www.hill.com/library/ietf_hx.html. Last accessed: 17 February 1997. [16] _____. "Running Your Own DNS." Network VAR, July 1996. (See also URL: http://www.hill.com/library/dns.html. Last accessed: 17 February 1997.) [17] Malamud, C. Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): PTR Prentice Hall, 1992. [18] Malkin, G.S. and J.K. Reynolds, "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to the F.Y.I. notes," FYI 1/RFC 1150, Proteon, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1990. [19] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities," STD 13/RFC 1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987. [20] National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). "A Beginner's Guide to HTML." URL: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. Last accessed: 2 February 1997. [21] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation," USC/Information Sciences Institute, RFC 1591, March 1994. [22] _____, "Internet Control Message Protocol," USC/Information Sciences Institute, RFC 792, September 1981.
[23] _____, Editor, "Internet Official Protocol Standards," STD 1/RFC 2000, Internet Architecture Board, February 1997. [24] _____, "Introduction to the STD Notes," RFC 1311, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1992. [25] _____, T. Li, and Y. Rekhter, "Best Current Practices," BCP 1/RFC 1818, USC/Information Sciences Institute, Cisco Systems, August 1995. [26] _____ and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol (FTP)," STD 9/RFC 959, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1985. [27] _____ and J. Reynolds, "TELNET Protocol Specification," STD 8/RFC 854, USC/Information Sciences Institute, May 1983. [28] Salus, P.H. Casting The Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and beyond... Reading (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1995. [29] Socolofsky, T.J. and C.J. Kale, "TCP/IP Tutorial," RFC 1180, Spider Systems Ltd., January 1991. [30] Stevens, W.R. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols. Reading (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1994. [31] Williamson, S., "Transition and Modernization of the Internet Registration Service," RFC 1400, Network Solutions, Inc., March 1993. [32] Zimmerman, D., "The Finger User Information Protocol," RFC 1288, Rutgers University, December 1991. 15. Authors' Address Gary C. Kessler Hill Associates 17 Roosevelt Highway Colchester, VT 05446 Phone: +1 802-655-8659 Fax: +1 802-655-7974 E-mail: kumquat@hill.com
Steven D. Shepard Hill Associates 17 Roosevelt Highway Colchester, VT 05446 Phone: +1 802-655-8646 Fax: +1 802-655-7974 E-mail: s.shepard@hill.com