Big Dummys Guide To The Internet | Page 2

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 they downloaded the
Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. The guide is now available in a
wide array of formats, including ACSCII text, HyperCard, World Wide
Web, PostScript and AmigaGuide. And the guide will be published in a
printed format by MIT Press in June of 1994.
EFF would like to thank author Adam Gaffin for doing a terrific job of
explaining the Net in such a nonthreatening way. We'd also like to
thank the folks at Apple, especially Steve Cisler of the Apple Library,
for their support of our efforts to bring this guide to you.
We invite you to join with EFF in our fight to ensure that equal access
to the networks and free speech are protected in newly emerging
technologies. We are a membership organization, and through
donations like yours, we can continue to sponsor important projects to
make communications easier. Information about the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and some of the work that we do can be found at the end of
this book.
We hope that the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet helps you learn
about whole new worlds, where new friends and experiences are sure to
be yours. Enjoy!

Mitch Kapor
Chairman of the Board
Electronic Frontier Foundation
[email protected]
For comments, questions, or requests regarding EFF or the Big
Dummy's Guide to the Internet, send a note to [email protected].

Preface
By Adam Gaffin,
Senior Writer, Network World, Framingham, Mass. Welcome to the
Internet! You're about to start a journey through a unique land without
frontiers, a place that is everywhere at once -- even though it exists
physically only as a series of electrical impulses. You'll be joining a
growing community of millions of people around the world who use
this global resource on a daily basis. With this book, you will be able to
use the Internet to:
= Stay in touch with friends, relatives and colleagues around the world,
at a fraction of the cost of phone calls or even air mail. = Discuss
everything from archaeology to zoology with people in several
different languages. = Tap into thousands of information databases and
libraries worldwide. = Retrieve any of thousands of documents,
journals, books and computer programs. = Stay up to date with
wire-service news and sports and with official weather reports. = Play
live, "real time" games with dozens of other people at once.
Connecting to "the Net" today, takes something of a sense of adventure,
a willingness to learn and an ability to take a deep breath every once in
awhile. Visiting the Net today is a lot like journeying to a foreign
country. There are so many things to see and do, but everything at first
will seem so, well, foreign.

When you first arrive, you won't be able to read the street signs. You'll
get lost. If you're unlucky, you may even run into some locals who'd
just as soon you went back to where you came from. If this weren't
enough, the entire country is constantly under construction; every day,
it seems like there's something new for you to figure out.
Fortunately, most of the locals are actually friendly. In fact, the Net
actually has a rich tradition of helping out visitors and newcomers.
Until very recently, there were few written guides for ordinary people,
and the Net grew largely through an "oral" tradition in which the old-
timers helped the newcomers.
So when you connect, don't be afraid to ask for help. You'll be
surprised at how many people will lend a hand!
Without such folks, in fact, this guide would not be possible. My
thanks to all the people who have written with suggestion, additions
and corrections since the Big Dummy's Guide first appeared on the
Internet in 1993.
Special thanks go to my loving wife Nancy. I would also like to thank
the following people, who, whether they know it or not, provided
particular help.
Rhonda Chapman, Jim Cocks, Tom Czarnik, Christopher Davis, David
DeSimone, Jeanne deVoto, Phil Eschallier, Nico Garcia, Joe Granrose,
Joerg Heitkoetter, Joe Ilacqua, Jonathan Kamens, Peter Kaminski,
Thomas A. Kreeger,