Big Dummys Guide To The Internet

Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet
(C)1993, 1994 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF]

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Copyright 1993, 1994 Electronic Frontier Foundation, all rights reserved. Redistribution, excerpting, republication, copying, archiving, and reposting are permitted, provided that the work is not sold for profit, that EFF contact information, copyright notice, and distribution information remains intact, and that the work is not qualitatively modified (translation, reformatting, and excerpting expressly permitted however - feel free to produce versions of the Guide for use with typesetting, hypertext, display, etc. applications, but please do not change the text other than to translate it to another language. Excerpts should be credited and follow standard fair use doctrine.) Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1001 G St. NW, Suite 950 E, Washington DC 20001 USA, +1 202 347 5400 (voice) 393 5509 (fax.) Basic info: [email protected]; General and Guide related queries: [email protected].
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Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, v.2.2 copyright Electronic Frontier Foundation 1993, 1994 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by Mitchell Kapor, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation. Preface by Adam Gaffin, senior writer, Network World.
Chapter 1
: Setting up and jacking in
1.1 Ready, set...
1.2 Go!
1.3 Public-access Internet providers
1.4 If your town doesn't have direct access
1.5 Net origins
1.6 How it works
1.7 When things go wrong
1.8 FYI
Chapter 2
: E-mail
2.1. The basics
2.2 Elm -- a better way
2.3 Pine -- even better than Elm
2.4 Smileys
2.5 Sending e-mail to other networks
2.6 Seven Unix commands you can't live without
Chapter 3
: Usenet I
3.1 The global watering hole
3.2 Navigating Usenet with nn
3.3 nn commands
3.4 Using rn
3.5 rn commands
3.6 Essential newsgroups
3.7 Speaking up
3.8 Cross-posting
Chapter 4
: Usenet II
4.1 Flame, blather and spew
4.2 Killfiles, the cure for what ails you
4.3 Some Usenet hints
4.4 The Brain-Tumor Boy, the modem tax and the chain letter
4.5 Big Sig
4.6 The First Amendment as local ordinance
4.7 Usenet history
4.8 When things go wrong
4.9 FYI
Chapter 5
: Mailing lists and Bitnet
5.1 Internet mailing lists
5.2 Bitnet
Chapter 6
: Telnet
6.1 Mining the Net
6.2 Library catalogs
6.3 Some interesting telnet sites
6.4 Telnet bulletin-board systems
6.5 Putting the finger on someone
6.6 Finding someone on the Net
6.7 When things go wrong
6.8 FYI
Chapter 7
: FTP
7.1 Tons of files
7.2 Your friend archie
7.3 Getting the files
7.4 Odd letters -- decoding file endings
7.5 The keyboard cabal
7.6 Some interesting ftp sites
7.7 ncftp -- now you tell me!
7.8 Project Gutenberg -- electronic books
7.9 When things go wrong
7.10 FYI
Chapter 8
: Gophers, WAISs and the World-Wide Web
8.1 Gophers
8.2 Burrowing deeper
8.3 Gopher commands
8.4 Some interesting gophers
8.5 Wide-Area Information Servers
8.6 The World-Wide Web
8.7 Clients, or how to snare more on the Web
8.8 When things go wrong
8.9 FYI
Chapter 9
: Advanced E-mail
9.1 The file's in the mail
9.2 Receiving files
9.3 Sending files to non-Internet sites
9.4 Getting ftp files via e-mail
9.5 The all knowing Oracle
Chapter 10
: News of the world
10.1 Clarinet: UPI, Dave Barry and Dilbert
10.2 Reuters
10.3 USA Today
10.4 National Public Radio
10.5 The World Today: From Belarus to Brazil
10.6 E-mailing news organizations
10.7 FYI
Chapter 11
: IRC, MUDs and other things that are more fun than they sound
11.1 Talk
11.2 Internet Relay Chat
11.3 IRC commands
11.4 IRC in times of crisis
11.5 MUDs
11.6 Go, go, go (and chess, too)!
11.7 The other side of the coin
11.8 FYI
Chapter 12
: Education and the Net
12.1 The Net in the Classroom
12.2 Some specific resources for students and teachers
12.3 Usenet and Bitnet in the classroom
Chapter 13
: Business on the Net
13.1 Setting up shop
13.2 FYI
Chapter 14
: Conclusion -- The end? Appendix A: Lingo Appendix B: Electronic Frontier Foundation Information
Foreword
By Mitchell Kapor,
Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Welcome to the World of the Internet
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to have sponsored the production of the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. EFF is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the newly emerging communications technologies vital to active participation in the events of our world. As more and more information is available online, new doors open up for those who have access to that information. Unfortunately, unless access is broadly encouraged, individuals can be disenfranchised and doors can close, as well. The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was written to help open some doors to the vast amounts of information available on the world's largest network, the Internet.
The spark for the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet was ignited in a few informal conversations that included myself and Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, Inc., in June of 1991. With the support of Apple Computer, EFF engaged Adam Gaffin to write the book and actually took on the project in September of 1991.
The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for people who had little or no experience with network communications. We intended to post this guide to the Net in ASCII and HyperCard formats and to give it away on disk, as well as have a print edition available. We have more than realized our goal. Individuals from as geographically far away as Germany, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Scotland, Norway, and Antarctica have all sent electronic mail to say that