Table Of Content

Ebook banner rotater for General Internet This banner was supplied by SAFE Audit Tricks of the Internet Gurus l In troduction m O verview m F oreword m A bout the Authors Part I - First Things First l C hapter 1 - Getting Connected: The Guru's Options l C hapter 2 - Access at All Costs l C hapter 3 - Tricks of the Trade: Tools l C hapter 4 - Where's the Complaint Department? Or, What to Do When Things Don't Work Part II - Everyday Guru Facilities l C hapter 5 - E-Mail l C hapter 6 - Faxing from the Internet l C hapter 7 - FTP l C hapter 8 - Telnet l C hapter 9 - Usenet l C hapter 10 - World Wide Web Part III - A Guru's Diversions l C hapter 11 - Online Entertainment for the Internet Guru l C hapter 12 - Listservs and Mailing Lists l C hapter 13 - MBone: The Internet's Multimedia Backbone l C hapter 14 - Community Computing http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/ (1 of 2) [4/18/1999 12:36:06 AM] Ebook banner rotater for General Internet Part IV - Finding Stuff: You Name It, a Guru Can Find It (and So Can You) l C hapter 15 - Life with Archie l C hapter 16 - Veronica l C hapter 17 - Discussion Forums l C hapter 18 - Gopher Part V - Tricks of the Professional Internet Gurus l C hapter 19 - Internet in The Classroom: How Educators Use the Internet l C hapter 20 - Business and Commerce l C hapter 21 - Finding Information You Want l C hapter 22 - Art on the Internet l A ppendix A - Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) l A ppendix B - Signature Files l A ppendix C - Standards and Where To Find Them http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/ (2 of 2) [4/18/1999 12:36:06 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm m T ricks of the Internet Gurus m T ricks of the Internet Gurus n C opyright © 1994 by Sams Publishing n T rademarks m O verview m F oreword n -- by James "Kibo" Parry m A bout the Authors m I ntroduction n -- by Billy Barron Tricks of the Internet Gurus Tricks of the Internet Gurus Philip Baczewski Billy Barron Kevin Barron Robert Bickford Jon Callas Earl Fogel Tod Foley Kenny Greenberg David Gulbransen Joseph Janes John Katsaros Dave Kinnaman Max Metral Kevin Mullet James "Kibo" Parry Joseph Poirier Lou Rosenfeld Margaret Russell-Gonzalez Kevin Savetz Peter Scott Stephen Volan Sams Publishing 201 West 103rd Street http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (1 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:17 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm Indianapolis, Indiana 46290 Copyright © 1994 by Sams Publishing FIRST EDITION All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. For information, address Sams Publishing, 201 W. 103rd St., Indianapolis, IN 46290. International Standard Book Number: 0-672-30599-2 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-67090 97 96 95 94 4 3 2 1 Interpretation of the printing code: the rightmost double-digit number is the year of the book's printing; the rightmost single-digit, the number of the book's printing. For example, a printing code of 94-1 shows that the first printing of the book occurred in 1994. Composed in Helvetica and MCPdigital by Macmillan Computer Publishing Printed in the United States of America Trademarks All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Sams Publishing cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Publisher Richard K. Swadley Associate Publisher Jordan Gold Acquisitions Manager Stacy Hiquet Managing Editor Cindy Morrow Acquisitions Editor Grace Buechlein http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (2 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:17 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm Development Editor Phillip W. Paxton Production Editor David Bradford Editors Anne Owen Marla Abraham Adam Banta Fran Hatton Sean Medlock Editorial Coordinator Bill Whitmer Editorial Assistants Carol Ackerman Sharon Cox Lynette Quinn Technical Reviewers Billy Barron Philip Baczewski Interviewer Tod Foley Marketing Manager Gregg Bushyeager Cover Designer Nathan Clement Book Designer Alyssa Yesh Director of Production and Manufacturing Jeff Valler Imprint Manager Juli Cook http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (3 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:17 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm Manufacturing Coordinator Paul Gilchrist Production Analysts Dennis Clay Hager Mary Beth Wakefield Graphics Image Specialists Teresa Forrester Clint Lahnen Tim Montgomery Dennis Sheehan Greg Simsic Susan VandeWalle Jeff Yesh Page Layout Elaine Brush Mary Ann Cosby Rich Evers Ayanna Lacey Kim Scott Proofreading Don Brown Mona Brown Cheryl Cameron Kimberly K. Hannel Donna Harbin Beth Rago Suzanne Tully Karen Walsh Holly Wittenberg Indexer Greg Eldred Overview Foreword Intro Part I First Things First http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (4 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:17 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm 1 Connection Requirements 2 Access at All Costs 3 Tricks of the Trade: Tools 4 Where's the Complaint Department? Part II Everyday Guru Facilities 5 E-mail 6 Faxing from the Internet 7 FTP 8 Telnet 9 Usenet 10 WWW Part III A Guru's Diversions 11 Online Entertainment 12 Listservs and Mailing Lists 13 Mbone: The Internet Multimedia Backbone 14 Community Computing Part IV Finding Stuff: You Name It, a Guru Can Find it (and So Can You) 15 Archie 16 Veronica 17 Discussion Forums 18 Gopher Part V Tricks of the Professional Internet Gurus 19 Internet in the Classroom 20 Business and Commerce 21 Research on the Internet 22 Art on the Internet Appendix A Uniform Resource Locators Appendix B Signature Files Appendix C Standards and Where to Find Them Index Foreword --by James "Kibo" Parry Yesterday I was talking to my dog, Spot. http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (5 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:18 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm "Hey, Spot," I said, "with the massive amount of cash this Foreword has brought me, I felt generous, and so I bought you your very own computer." Spot looked across the room to where I'd set up the machine next to his water dish. Still shiny with that putty-gray factory finish, it was the very latest model—the IBM Dog Computer 3000 with a cordless pawboard and a squeaky mouse! A 999,000-baud modem was connected to Spot's very own phone line. "Gosh," drooled Spot, "Thank you, Kibo! It's the most wonderful thing anyone ever gave a dog like me! Now I can log on to that amazing new Information Superhighway!" "Uh, Spot, before you do, you know how to use the Internet, right?" Spot barked happily and ran in a little circle. "Sure I do! I've seen The Lawnmower Man and WarGames and every episode of William Shatner's awesome Tekwar. I know all about this stuff. First you put on your virtual reality helmet and your glowing blue neon datasuit, then you fly through the maze, and laser beams come out of your eyes and you have to shoot the computer viruses before they turn you into a skeleton and then you have twenty seconds to guess the three-letter password before all the nuclear missiles in the world come out of the screen at you!!!" Spot turned on his new computer and the screen lit up: > Spot cried. "Waah! This sucks! Kibo, you tricked me. I hate you!" "Now, now, little Spot, it wasn't I who cruelly deceived you. It was the media. Remember, everything can be blamed on the media. Who told you it was called 'The Information Superhighway'?" "The media," sobbed Spot. "And who told you it was a super-cool new thing they just invented last week?" "The media," sobbed Spot. "And who told you it was a dangerous and scary thing that could molest your children while they sleep?" "The media!" bawled Spot. "Oh, how I hate them! They're evil. I guess I don't know anything about what the so-called Information Superhighway is really like. Kibo, you'll have to show me what to do here." I leaned over and typed in Spot's password, DOG$BONE. Spot was now logged in to the world's most powerful information service, Dogidy. WELCOME TO DOGIDY™, AN INFORMATION SERVICE WITH A DIFFERENCE. A JOINT VENTURE OF MacBURGER AND COLA-SODA. You have 13 new pieces of mail from long-lost friends and people who want to date you. There are 637 news articles clipped for you, on subjects that you care deeply about, with all others omitted. http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (6 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:18 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm The President of the United States would like to talk to you personally via videoconferencing. He is offering you a Cabinet post. You are our one millionth customer! Press "Y" now to receive a year's free supply of your favorite brand of dog food. Spot burst into tears again. "Waah! I can't read, I'm just a dog!" The "Information Superhighway," for some reason, has become the hot new topic. Every magazine has done at least one article on it, usually emphasizing its hip trendiness. The Internet has been around for decades in various forms. Heck, you could even trace its precursors back to the laying of the first transcontinental phone cable. Early computer networking often involved computers making phone calls to each other. Then, someone came up with the bright idea of connecting special lines directly between the computers so that they could communicate faster, and without paying the phone company. Various computers were connected to different networks, such as ARPAnet, Bitnet, and so on. Eventually these networks were linked together in various ways, so that now, effectively, all the well-connected computers in the world are on one network—the Internet. The computers communicate with one another in various ways—via cables, via microwave dishes, via satellite, and yes, some still call each other on the phone. The commercial "information services" are now getting in on the game as well—if you have a CompuServe account, you can send mail to someone who has an America Online account, through the magic of the Internet. Businesses are offering electronic catalogs of their goods over the network, so that you can shop with your computer. You can send letters to people ranging from Conan O'Brien to the President over the network, without having to pay for a stamp. (Whether you pay for the network is different, but there certainly are ways of getting on for free.) You can browse through massive libraries of information, and even download entire books within minutes. Ten years ago, you could have done many of the same things. You couldn't have sent electronic mail to President Clinton (or even President Reagan), and CompuServe users were forced to chat only with other CompuServe users, but the basic capabilities for dealing with large quantities of information rapidly were there. So why is there this sudden craze for the "Information Superhighway?" Is it because someone coined that damned term? Is it because computers are slowly getting easier to use? Because they're rapidly getting more powerful? Or is it just a "hundredth-monkey" situation, where enough people have gotten "into" it so that it's now chic? I don't know, but the number of people connected to the Internet, and the quality of their connections, and the quantity of information moving over the network, continues to increase. I've had access for only eight years, but in that time, I've seen an amazing increase in the amount of stuff that happens on the network. For instance, on my favorite Internet service, Usenet, I can recall when I could read most all the articles in http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (7 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:18 AM] Tricks of the Internet Gurus tigfm.htm one day. Today, there are over 9600 topics on Usenet (it'll be ten thousand by the time the book is printed!), and many of them contain enough articles to keep you busy for several hours. As the network grows and grows, the users (and their interfaces) need to grow more sophisticated just to be able to keep up with the flood of information. To be a "power user" these days, you need finely-honed skills that let you find the information or service or discussion you want, without having to wade through ten zillion irrelevant things. Just finding the documentation on how to do something (let alone reading possibly hundreds of pages of it) can be a difficult task. Speaking of reading hundreds of pages, Spot finally managed to teach himself to read by following the self-guided tutorial in GNU EMACS. In just fifty easy lessons, Spot could read like a pro! With newfound enthusiasm, he logged into Dogidy and read the first screenful of text. Spot was so excited by the availability of billions of bytes of information that he instantly forgot how to read. Poor Spot! About the Authors Philip Baczewski ([email protected]) is the Assistant Director of Academic Computing at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Baczewski holds a doctoral degree in music composition, and in addition to his activities in computing support and instruction, he is a published composer of classical music and a researcher in the field of music cognition. Kevin Barron is the system manager for the Institute for Theoretical Physics, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Kevin has been roaming the Net for more than 11 years, and for the past several years he has taught "Beyond E-Mail", a seminar on navigating the Internet. He is also a contributing author to The Internet Unleashed. Billy Barron ([email protected]) is currently the network services manager for the University of Texas at Dallas and has an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of North Texas. Billy is best known for his previous work on the CICNet Electronic Journal Project and the electronic book Accessing Online Bibliographic Databases. His articles can regularly be found in publications such as the Internet Society Newsletter and ConneXions. Robert Bickford ([email protected]) is a software consultant who lives in Marin County, California, often hacking late into the night, and (usually) enjoying it immensely. His .sig file reads: "I recognize that a class of criminals and juvenile delinquents has taken to calling themselves 'hackers,' but I consider them irrelevant to the true meaning of the word—just as Mafia members call themselves 'businessmen' but nobody pays that fact any attention." Jon Callas is a founder and Director of Technology of World Benders, Inc. He has nearly twenty years' experience in computing, and has been a denizen of the Internet since 1978 or 1979 (he can't remember which), when it was still the ARPAnet. He has worked on many things including satellite ground systems, operating systems, windowing systems, and cross-platform networked communications applications. He was trained as a classical musician, and became a mathematician when he learned that there is a reason for the expression "starving musician." He went into software after learning that mathematicians don't fare much better. He is also a silversmith, needing a hobby that produces things that are material. http://docs.rinet.ru/ITricks/tigfm.htm (8 of 12) [4/18/1999 12:36:18 AM]