From steved@ncatfyv.uark.edu Tue Jul 13 15:01:33 1993
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1993 15:35:35 -0500 (CDT)
From: Steve Diver
To: london@sunsite.unc.edu
Cc: Steve Diver
Subject: The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet
The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet
A Complete Directory of Networked Electronic Documents,
Online Conferences, Serials, Software, and Archives
Relevant to Religious Studies.
Volume One of Two Volumes
Edition 2.0
Low ASCII Version
February 1993
Michael Strangelove
University of Ottawa
Department of Religious Studies
Copyright (C) 1993 by Michael Strangelove. All Rights Reserved.
This Guide is intended for free dissemination as long as this
header remains intact. Permission is hereby granted for non-
commercial use by electronic bulletin board/conference systems,
free-nets, individuals and libraries. All commercial use requires
the permission of the author. The Society of Biblical Literature
is the only authorized distributer of print copies of this Guide.
Please note that this copyright allows for the mounting of this
Guide on Gopher, Telnet, WAIS and WorldWideWeb database servers,
so long as the following conditions are met: (1) access to the
server is provided free of charge; (2) the server contains the
most recent edition of this Guide (out-of-date editions must be
replaced as new editions are released); (3) this Guide is provided
in its entirety (segmenting this Guide and tagging for hypertext
applications is permissible use); (4) the author is notified of
its use on any of the above database servers.
Michael Strangelove
Religious Studies Department
University of Ottawa
177 Waller
Ottawa, Ontario
CANADA K1N 6N5
(613) 747-0642 (Voice)
(613) 564-6641 (Fax)
E-Mail Address:
441495@uottawa (BITNET)
441495@acadvm1.uottawa.ca (Internet)
The Electric Mystic's Guide has been made possible through the
support of the Research Centre for the Study of Religion,
Department of Religious Studies, University of Ottawa, and through
funding from the American Academy of Religion. The gopher-
accessible version of this guide was made possible through the
cooperation of the Department of Religious Studies, Carleton
University and a variety of benevolent deities responsible for the
care and feeding of UNIX computers.
The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful support of the
Computing and Communications Services of the University of Ottawa
and Carleton University. This guide is the result of hundreds of
e-mail queries, and countless calls and visits to the computing
help desk of the University of Ottawa over the past two years. I
am particularly indebted to David Sutherland (Director, Carleton
University Computing and Communication Services), Peter Hickey
(xxxx, University of Ottawa), our site Postmaster, Tram Nguyen,
and the many dedicated individuals at the University of Ottawa
Computing Help Desk.
Special thanks to Ann Okerson, for encouraging me to see this
through, and to Harry Gilmer, for his willingness to support this
project through publication under Scholars Press.
The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet features information
on:
Over three hundred files, documents, and software
programs on the Internet of interest to Religious
Studies, including the following:
* Scholarly bibliographies.
* Academic prepublication papers and information files
in such fields as early Christianity, Judaism and
Buddhism.
* Complete information on online academic conferences
on religion.
* Over twenty course outlines, seminar syllabi and
subject glossaries.
* The first network accessible theses in Religious
Studies.
Readers will learn how to:
* Communicate with colleagues in online academic
conferences.
* Use the Net as a research and publication tool.
* Access dozens of major FTP and LISTSERV electronic
text archives.
* Retrieve Macintosh sound files of Arabic language
prayers and recitations from the Koran.
* Retrieve graphic image files of objects from the
Temple, people praying at the Kotel (Western Wall),
and other sites and sounds from the Middle East.
* Retrieve free software for the study of the Bible
and other texts.
* Retrieve the entire text of the Bible, the Book of
Mormon and the Koran.
* Retrieve dozens of freely available user guides,
indexes and general information files about the Net.
The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet also includes
extensive information on how to subscribe to online academic
conferences and electronic journals, how to use FTP, LISTSERV,
Telnet, Gopher, Archie, and other network systems.
* HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY *
Volumes One and Two of the Electric Mystic's Guide are freely
available via the international academic networks
(BITNET/Internet) from the CONTENTS Project archive via FTP from
the node panda1.uottawa.ca (137.122.6.16) in the directory
/pub/religion/ as the files:
Volume One:
electric-mystics-guide-v1-partX.ps
(Postscript file)
electric-mystics-guide-v1-partX.ps.Z
(Unix compressed Postscript file)
electric-mystics-guide-v1.txt
(low ASCII text)
electric-mystics-guide-v1.txt.Z
(Unix compressed low ASCII text)
electric-mystics-guide-v1.zip
(zipped Wordperfect 5.1 text)
Volume Two: (NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL SUMMER 1993)
electric-mystics-guide-v2-partX.ps
(Postscript file)
electric-mystics-guide-v2-partX.ps.Z
(Unix compressed Postscript file)
electric-mystics-guide-v2.txt
(low ASCII text)
electric-mystics-guide-v2.txt.Z
(Unix compressed low ASCII text)
electric-mystics-guide-v2.zip
(zipped Wordperfect 5.1 text)
As the Postscript version is too large to place on the Net as one
complete file, it has been made available in multiple sections.
The "X" in "partX" indicates a series of files, part1, part2,
part3, and so on.
The Electric Mystic's Guide is also available as a low ASCII text
via the CONTENTS Project LISTSERV fileserver as the files:
MYSTICS V1-TXT
MYSTICS V2-TXT
from these addresses:
listserv@uottawa
listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
* HOW TO GET UPDATES TO THIS GUIDE *
Updates to this guide will be made available via FTP and LISTSERV.
To retrieve updates, send the command GET EMG UPDATE to
listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca or retrieve the
file emg-update.txt from the FTP node panda1.uottawa.ca in the
/pub/religion/ directory.
This update file will contain all corrections and additions to the
guide for the current edition.
The most up-to-date version of this guide is available through the
Internet-accessible CONTENTS Project gopher server that provides
Net users with an online version of The Electric Mystic's Guide
and also allows for online reading of many of the papers,
bibliographies, reviews and other files documented in this guide.
To find out if this gopher server is now available, send the
command GET GOPHER INFO to listserv@uottawa or
listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca or retrieve the file gopher-info.txt
from the FTP node panda1.uottawa.ca in the /pub/religion/
directory.
Scholars Press will also publish an annual revised edition of The
Electric Mystic's Guide.
Readers can search the CONTENTS Project LISTSERV database for
updated sections of the Electric Mystic's Guide. To do this, send
the following LDBASE batch job as an e-mail message to
listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
// JOB ECHO=NO
DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES
// RULES DD *
SEARCH EMG: in CONTENTS
INDEX
/
This will return an index of updated sections from the guide that
have been published on the Net by The Religious Studies
Publications Journal - CONTENTS. See Searching LISTSERV Logbooks,
page 10 for complete details.
__________________________________________________________________
* Table of Contents -- Volume One *
__________________________________________________________________
(Pagination does not apply to ASCII and Gopher/Telnet/WAIS
versions)
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Note to New Networkers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Networks Covered in this Guide. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Religious Studies and the Networked Electronic
Scholar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
How to Retrieve Documents Listed in This Guide. . . . . 7
Retrieving Documents via LISTSERV . . . . . . . 7
Sending Commands to LISTSERV. . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Retrieve LISTSERV List Indexes and
Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Searching LISTSERV Logbooks . . . . . . . . 10
Batch Jobs With LDBASE. . . . . . . 10
Interactive Searching . . . . . . . 11
Using FTP Mail Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
FTPMAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BITFTP -- Princeton BITNET FTP Server . . . 14
Find Out More About LISTSERV. . . . . . . . . . 15
Retrieving Documents via FTP. . . . . . . . . . 16
Using FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Connecting to a Host (Node) . . . . . . . . 17
FTPing Binary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Various Common FTP Commands and Their Use . 19
FTP Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Common FTP Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Uncompressing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Common Compression Formats and Their
Uncompression Programs . . . . . . . 22
Retrieving and Using Graphic (Picture)
Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Find Out More About FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Selected Network Guides and Useful Information Files. . 24
General Information Documents About the Net . . 24
Network User Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
System-Specific Guides. . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Print Books About the Net . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Print Magazines About the Net . . . . . . . . . 30
Hypertext Guides to the Net . . . . . . . . . . 32
A Note to Moderators, Authors and Maintainers of
Networked Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Network Accessible Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1. Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
ANTHAP-L Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Electronic Buddhist Archives. . . . . . . . 38
The ANTHRO Gopher Phone Book. . . . . . . . . . 39
The Anthropology Information Distribution
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2. Articles and Prepublication Papers . . . . . . . . 40
3. Bible Study Aids and Software Programs . . . . . . 44
4. Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5. Book Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6. Buddhism and Related Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7. Contemporary Jewry and Israel. . . . . . . . . . . 57
israel.nysernet.org FTP Archive . . . . . . . . 58
Old Frog's Almanac Holocaust and Fascism
Archive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8. The CONTENTS Project Miscellaneous Files . . . . . 60
9. Course Outlines, Seminar Syllabi and Glossaries. . 61
10. Electronic Texts and Databases . . . . . . . . . . 64
11. History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Mississippi State History Archives. . . . . 66
Supreme Court Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
12. IOUDAIOS Miscellaneous Files . . . . . . . . . . 67
13. Islamic Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Islamic Computer Resource Guide . . . . . . . . 69
The Islamic School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
American Arab Scientific Society (AMASS)
Software Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
ArabTex TeX/LaTeX Arabic Word Processor . . . . 72
Islam History Hypercard Stack (Macintosh) . . . 72
Other Islamic Studies Resources . . . . . . . . 72
14. Journal Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
TOC-L -- Tables of Contents of Religious
Studies Journals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
TOCS-IN -- Tables of Contents of Interest to
Classicists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
16. Online E-Mail Address Compilations . . . . . . . . 77
18. Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
19. Sacred and Primary Electronic Texts . . . . . . . 86
The Bible (King James Version). . . . . . . . . 86
The Book of Mormon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Koran (Quran) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Tanach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Kama Sutra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Vedic Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
John Trevisa Corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Searching for Online Sacred Texts with Archie . 89
Reading Texts Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
20. Software/Hardware Reviews and Information Files. 92
21. Software Programs for Religious Studies. . . . . . 94
Primary Software Archives . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Graphic Files from Israel . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Vatican Library Exhibit at the Library of
Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
22. Thesis and Dissertations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
23. Thesis and Dissertations -- Abstracts. . . . . . . 97
Index of Network Tools and Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Index of Document Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
[Note that the indexes are not included in the low ASCII version
of the Electric Mystic's Guide.]
__________________________________________________________________
* Introduction *
__________________________________________________________________
The Electric Mystic's Guide is a non-technical survey of all major
documents, archives and services of relevance to Religious Studies
and related fields that are available through the international,
academic computer networks commonly referred to as the Net
(BITNET, Internet and affiliated networks). This includes
networked papers, reviews, book notes, dissertations, major sacred
texts, software programs, electronic mail address collections,
general information files, data banks, electronic journals,
newsletters, online discussion groups, specialized commercial and
public networks, and relevant networked organizations,
associations, institutions and companies. It should be noted that
the Electric Mystic's Guide is not meant to be a handbook on how
to use the Net, and thus assumes a certain level of familiarity
with FTP, Telnet, LISTSERV and other Net operating programs.
Nonetheless, extensive instructions have been included in the
guide to ensure that readers will be able to access the material
documented herein.
It is interesting to note that the vast majority of the
approximately 300 files documented in this guide have been placed
on the Net in the last three years. This would suggest that the
end of this decade will see well over two thousand networked
documents relevant to Religous Studies. The number of Religious
Studies and related scholars presently online is unknown but
certainly exceeds ten thousand. No comprehensive electronic mail
address book for Religious Studies exists at this point in time.
We can look forward to a proliferation of specialized archives
over the next few years.
Electronic mail addresses given within this guide are in BITNET
and Internet format, unless otherwise stated. Login to FTP nodes
listed herein as anonymous with your e-mail address as the
password unless otherwise stated. All other aspects of this guide
are system neutral. Travellers on the Net should note that there
are many versions of Telnet and FTP software and a variety of
login procedures. Most systems will offer some form of help if you
enter the command HELP or ?.
The Electric Mystic's Guide was previously written as one complete
document but has been divided into two volumes, due to its growing
size and technical restrictions within some systems on the size of
network accessible manuscripts. The guide has the following
format: Volume One documents a wide variety of network-accessible
files and software programs of direct and indirect relevance to
Religious Studies and related fields. The selection of material
was based on the scholarly nature of the documents or their
significance as general information files. No attempt has been
made to document every file related to religion on the Net, due to
the transient nature, and questionable academic value of some of
the material that has be placed on network fileservers. If a
document has been overlooked that the reader feels should be
listed in the Electric Mystic's Guide, please contact the author
with details of its content and location. Volume One also has
extensive information on how to retrieve documents listed in this
guide, how to use Archie, LISTSERV and FTP, and how to search
LISTSERV logbooks. Readers will find interesting Net tidbits,
information servers and archives mentioned in the boxes titled FYI
throughout this guide.
Volume Two provides information on relevant networked
organizations, online academic conferences, journals and
newsletters, commercial Religious Studies related networks,
detailed information on network-accessible document archives of
interest to this field and various other relevant scholarly
sources and forums to be found within the emerging Electric Gaia.
Each volume has its own index. Volume One also includes an index
of network tools, systems, archives, and commands documented
herein (page 98). The low ASCII versions of the Electric Mystic's
Guide do not contain these indexes.
Please note that the LISTSERV fileserver of the online academic
conference, IOUDAIOS, will be changing its e-mail addresses at
some point in mid 1993. If you find that the addresses
listserv@yorkvm1 or listserv@vm1.yorku.ca do not work, please
contact the list moderator (David Reimer dreimer4@mach1.wlu.ca)
for the new address.
* A Note to New Networkers
It is impossible for this guide to tell you everything that you
will need to know about using the Net. It is therefore strongly
recommended that the new networker begin by identifying local
support personnel and make friends with them (take them out to
dinner, buy them a large gift), take a course or two in the use of
your local system and electronic mail, and subscribe, as soon as
you know how, to the online forum HELP-NET. Send the e-mail
message SUBSCRIBE HELP-NET your name to listserv@templevm or
listserv@vm.temple.edu. HELP-NET is intended for the new user and
is the best online forum for asking questions about how to use the
Net and how to find information within it. An index is available
that lists very helpful information files available from the HELP-
NET fileserver. Send the command INDEX HELP-NET to
listserv@templevm or listserv@vm.temple.edu for the index of
files.
The Electric Mystic's Guide assumes that the reader has a basic
grasp of electronic mail (e-mail) and is able to send mail on his
or her own local system. It also assume that the reader has
already installed a modem and knows how to use their own personal
computer and communication software. The numerous types of
mainframe systems and communication software make it impossible
for the guide to give details on how to download or upload a file
or program from a mainframe to a personal computer.
WARNING: I cannot possibly answer every query from
readers concerning how to use e-mail, upload files,
install a modem, unzip a file or overcome unrequited
love. The main intention behind this guide is not to
instruct the reader on how to overcome every
unforeseeable problem but to equip the reader with
basic resources, direct to appropriate online forums,
and engender skills that will help the new networker
become proficient both at mining the Net and at
network research problem solving. I will gladly answer
queries concerning errors and problems within the
Electric Mystic's Guide. Inappropriate queries will
receive a pre-written reply that directs the reader to
more appropriate online sources of instruction and
information.
* The Networks Covered in this Guide *
The following are the main networks that are documented in the
Electric Mystic's Guide. To make effective use of this guide, you
should know what network your e-mail account is on. New users of
the Net are advised to take local courses on the use of their
network's systems. Note that some sites have both BITNET, Internet
and USENET connections. It is up to your local system
administration if USENET newsgroups are made available in part or
whole. Readers interested in further details about these and other
networks are encouraged to read John S. Quarterman's The Matrix:
Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide (Bedford,
Massachusetts: Digital Press, 1990, ISBN: 1-55558-033-5).
BITNET BITNET (Because It's Time NETwork)
connects over three thousand hosts in over
32 countries. BITNET's main feature is the
automatic mailing program called LISTSERV.
LISTSERV fileservers maintain archives of
primarily low ASCII documents and also
runs LISTSERV discussion groups, also
known as lists. BITNET does not support
FTP or Telnet. BITNET is connected to
identical networks in Canada and Europe
named NetNorth and EARN.
Internet The Internet is actually a worldwide
internetwork, a large collection of over
5,000 networks across the globe. The
Internet is so large that its size can
only be estimated. Current numbers put the
Internet at over one million hosts and ten
million users. Most North American
universities are connect via the Internet.
Users on the Internet can access FTP and
LISTSERV fileservers and also use Telnet.
Most Internet sites will have access to
USENET newsgroups.
USENET USENET (User's Network) is a worldwide
network that has one main service, news or
newsgroups, a collection of over 300
different online discussion groups. See
the section, USENET -- General
Information, Volume Two, for more
information about USENET.
Denominational
Networks There are a number of denominational
networks throughout North America. These
networks connect church related
organizations and church members. The
denominational networks documented thus
far in this guide are those belonging to
Ecunet. See Volume Two for information on
Ecunet.
__________________________________________________________________
* Religious Studies and the Networked Electronic Scholar *
__________________________________________________________________
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy describes the universe as
being "Big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely
mindbogglingly big it is" (as related by Douglas Adams). I mention
this because when people start talking about the Net, the
conversation tends to take a similar direction. Like the universe,
both the size and growth rate of the Net has the effect of sending
users into fits of metaphorical frenzy. Any numbers used to
describe the Net are usually guestimates (a lot depends on how you
define the "Net") but it does help to frame any discussion about
the utility of the Net as a research tool by noting that through
it, one is connected to perhaps as many as ten million other
individuals worldwide. At last count, the Internet alone connected
over five thousand sub-networks, and one million hosts, each of
which may in turn be connected to anywhere from zero to one
thousand or more other computers or terminals. The number of files
and programs that can be accessed through the Net has been
estimated at over one million, containing roughly the equivalent
of 100 gigabytes of free programs and information, or more than
you could possibly read in what little spare time you have to
spare. Like some benevolent, virus, the truly shocking thing about
the Net is that it is doubling in size every year.
What makes all this talk of millions-of-this and gigabytes-of-that
rather impressive is the way that it has effected not just a few
computer wizards and midnight hackers, but governments. Large
governments with big budgets. The government of the United states
of America is taking the Net seriously enough to consider
reallocating billions of dollars from its military budget towards
the development of the National Research and Education Network
(NREN). NREN will link all educational institutions, from
elementary schools to universities, with research centres,
libraries and government databases through a national high
performance computer network. Not to be outdone in the area of
technology, Japan is intent on developing a national fibre optic
network capable of transmitting complete multi-media services to
homes and business by the year 2015. Whereas transportation
technology was the basis of the industrial revolution, global
computer networks are quickly becoming the primary infrastructure
of this age of information and its proliferation of minor
revolutions. Government and businesses are busy trying to ensure
that they end up on the winning side of any coming revolution
(always an asset come election time) and there are a number of
tell tale signs that the academic community is on the verge of
embracing the Net as an integral part of the way it does business.
While the Net is expanding at a mindboggling rate, it must be
remembered that, above all else, it is young. Desk top computing
only took off in the mid-eighties, in the seventies computers were
portrayed in cinema as monsters in the care of white-coated
"scientist". Five years ago perhaps as much as fifty percent of
the Net did not exist. So we are very much in the middle of a
global birthing, which is the primary reason for all the "ooohhs
and aaahs" and speculation on what the Net will be when it grows
up and who it will look like (capitalist, socialist or
anarchist?). Many of the archives and systems on the Net have been
started or developed in the past few years, so while the Net is
not quite yet the "ultimate" resource and research tool, it does
hold forth much promise for scholars and students of Religious
Studies and related disciplines (indeed, all of academia).
Over the next few short years we can look forward to the growth of
extensive network-accessible archives of secondary and even
primary material for Religious Studies, much of which will be
available at no cost to the user. This guide will continue to
provide an overview of these network-accessible archive projects,
such as the Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive, the
CONTENTS Project, the Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data
Bank, the Electronic Buddhist Archives, the American Arab
Scientific Society Software Library and the Israel Project at
Nysernet (see Volume Two for details). We will also see a
proliferation of network-distributed electronic serials for
Religious Studies and an expanding number of online academic
discussion groups of increasing quality and size.
An excellent example of how Religious Studies departments can make
use of the Internet is seen in the CCAT Gopher database. This is a
Gopher database of course materials for University of Pennsylvania
Humanities (Classical and Religious Studies) courses, accessed at
ccat.sas.upenn.edu. This database contains complete electronic
primary texts, course syllabi, glossaries, photograph and sound
archives, and related pedagological material. This Gopher database
is a sample of what we can expect to see much more of on the
Internet in the near future.
All of these resources will be documented through an Internet-
accessible CONTENTS Project gopher server that will provide Net
users with an online version of The Electric Mystic's Guide and
also allow for online reading of many of the bibliographies,
reviews and other files documented in this guide. To find out if
this gopher server is now available, send the command GET GOPHER
INFO to listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca or
retrieve the file gopher-info.txt from the FTP node
panda1.uottawa.ca in the /pub/religion/ directory.
The following are some examples of how the Net has proven useful
to a variety of individuals, scholars and researchers around the
world.
* The Internet has provided me with access to several religion
scholars who have been very helpful and willing to correspond with
me on various issues. (Carl Briggs, Director of Public Relations,
Alderson-Broaddus College, Philippi, West Virgina.)
* Networking has helped me in that I have been able to post
inquiries concerning projects I'm working on and solicit
submissions for an anthology that I am currently compiling. I
doubt that I would have obtained the response I have received at
such a low cost if I had sent out my notices via snail (surface)
mail. Also, I have been able to communicate with many brilliant
minds, on subjects of mutual interest to us, although that has not
precluded some really silly disagreements as well. I am quite
happy to have discovered this "magical process," and wonder how I
managed without it before. (Lin Collette, Brown University.)
* One of the best uses of the Net is this: obtaining a quick and
accurate, informed answer to a question that has one flummoxed. It
happened to me. Right in the middle of a lecture on the Upper
Palaeolithic period and how scholars approach research today a
student asked: "When did Race begin?" Darned if I knew. But I did
know the question was one worth asking. So I posted the question
to the anthropology and archaeology lists (online academic
conferences), and the result was that when I walked into class the
next week I had pulled together a really informed discussion of
race as both social and biological construct. (Maureen Korp,
University of Ottawa)
* Our article, "On the Logic of the Ontological Argument"
(Philosophical Perspectives 5, J. Tomberlin (ed.), Atascadero:
Ridgeview, 1991) was selected for the 1992 Philosopher's Annual as
being among the ten best articles in philosophy to appear in print
the previous year. The seminal idea in the article was conceived
and formalized in a face-to-face discussion, but with the
exception of a few phone calls, our subsequent work took place via
the Internet. Drafts of the paper were exchanged and discussed by
FTP and e-mail. The fine tuning of the paper, however, was
accomplished by online "chat" sessions, in which we used the cut
and paste functions of a windowing system to transfer text from
the online chat session into the source file. And, of course, we
used e-mail to keep in touch about the subsequent publication
details. (Paul E. Oppenheimer, Thinking Machines Corporation and
Edward N. Zalta, Stanford University).
* Electronic Mail has been an invaluable discovery. It allows
conversation with scholars all over the world on particular items
of interest. Frequently in a university department, one may be the
only person interested in a given topic. But, on the Net, all
those who share an interest can converge. I've been able to locate
addresses for scholars in a matter of minutes, hours, days; when,
through usual channels, this may have taken months. For example,
just recently I had been searching for a scholar for weeks; he was
in Britain, but where? By chance, someone from his institution put
out a query over the Net. With his help, I finally made contact
with the "missing" person. It seems he was no longer listed in the
Commonwealth faculty directory because he had become the
University Registrar and was no longer teaching. The electronic
speed of communication is astonishing. To write to Europe usually
takes a minimum of two weeks. I can type a message to England and
have my answer by the next day, if not sooner. And, believe it or
not, I have even found a long-lost relative over the Net. (Renee
H. Bennett, St. Louis University).
* FYI -- The Directory of Electronic Journals an Newsletters *
The Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters is intended
to provide a comprehensive listing of all electronic journals and
newsletters which are of academic interest and available through
BITNET, Internet and any affiliated networks. This directory is
part of an ongoing project and is updated as new electronic
journals and newsletters come into existence and as existing
entries are changed. Every effort has been made to provide the
user with up-to-date information. Most entries have been either
provided from or scrutinized by the journal and newsletter editors
themselves to assure accuracy.
Internet users can read an online version of the Directory of
Electronic Journals and Newsletters by Gopher or Telnet to the
University of Maryland's Info Server. This server will send you
any of its files via e-mail, so it is a particularly useful
resource.
Telnet Access: telnet info.umd.edu
Select ReadingRoom then Newsletters then
DirectoryofENews
Gopher Access: gopher info.umd.edu
Select Info - Gopher Interface then ReadingRoom then
Newsletters then DirectoryofENews.
Contact: consult@umail.umd.edu
The Directory can also be accessed at the CICNet
Gopher, gopher.cic.net.
See Volume Two for complete information about the
Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters.
__________________________________________________________________
* How to Retrieve Documents Listed in This Guide *
__________________________________________________________________
The following describes how to retrieve documents listed in the
Electric Mystic's Guide from LISTSERV and FTP archives. One way to
think of the Net is to imagine a giant computer hard drive that
contains countless files in thousands of directories. LISTSERV and
FTP are the two main programs for retrieving files from this
global hard drive. This section will also describe how to search
LISTSERV logbooks and databases, how to use BITFTP and FTPMAIL,
and how to uncompress files.
* Retrieving Documents via LISTSERV
LISTSERV (which means "list server") is the automated system that
runs on IBM/VM computers. LISTSERV runs BITNET based discussion
groups called lists (sometimes referred to as online academic
discussion groups in the guide) and also maintains fileservers
that store documents and some programs. This guide documents all
LISTSERV based lists and documents that are of direct interest to
Religious Studies and related areas (see Volume Two). Whenever you
send a mail message to an address that starts with listserv@ you
are actually sending a command to a computer program, not to a
person. You can always get help from LISTSERV by sending the
command HELP. The Electric Mystic's Guide has instructions on the
following aspects of LISTSERV:
Retrieving Documents via LISTSERV (this section)
BITFTP (page 14)
FTPMAIL (page 13)
Searching LISTSERV Logbooks (page 10)
How to Make the Most of Online Discussion Groups (Volume Two)
Directories of LISTSERV Lists (Volume Two)
How To Subscribe to Online Discussion Groups (Volume Two)
Retrieving Logbooks (Volume Two)
BITNET and Internet Religious Studies Related Lists (Volume Two)
Users that are not on the Internet will not be able to make direct
use of FTP. These users should see, BITFTP -- Princeton BITNET FTP
Server, page 14 and FTPMAIL, page 13 .
* Sending Commands to LISTSERV
When you wish to retrieve a document that is stored on a LISTSERV
fileserver, the best way to do this is to send an e-mail message
to LISTSERV that contains the command you want it to execute. But
first, to retrieve a document from a LISTSERV fileserver you need
to know the LISTSERV fileserver's address and the document name. A
LISTSERV fileserver address will always look like this:
(BITNET Address) (Internet Address)
listserv@xxxx or listserv@xxx.xxx.xxx
listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
The "@" means "at" and on some systems you must write the address
like this:
listserv at uottawa or listserv at acadvm1.uottawa.ca
You can tell a BITNET address from an Internet address by how many
sections follow the @. A BITNET address will only have one
section, as in @uottawa whereas an Internet address will always
have two or more sections separated by periods, as in
@acadvm1.uottawa.ca. This is important to remember because if you
are on Internet you must use Internet style addresses. Some
Internet based systems will only allow you to use Internet
addresses, some will allow for both types of addresses. The
Electric Mystic's Guide gives both Internet and BITNET addresses
for LISTSERV fileservers whenever possible.
LISTSERV will tell you the BITNET version of an Internet e-mail
address or the Internet version of a BITNET e-mail address if you
send it the command: SHOW ALIAS address where address is the
BITNET or Internet address of which you want a "translation". For
example, if you send the command SHOW ALIAS UOTTAWA as a mail
message to listserv@uottawa (or any other LISTSERV), you will get
an answer back in the form of an e-mail message that says:
UOTTAWA is also known as acadvm1.uottawa.ca.
Files on LISTSERV fileservers will always have two parts to their
name, usually referred to as filename filetype. Both parts are
never more than eight characters long.
In the Electric Mystic's Guide, files on LISTSERV fileservers are
usually referred to like this:
Kraft, Robert A. Philo and the Sabbath Crisis: Alexandrian
Jewish Politics and the Dating of Philo's Works.
(Version 2, 1990). Available from IOUDAIOS,
listserv@yorkvm1 or listserv@vm1.yorku.ca as SABBATH
ARTICLE.
The author's name is given first, then the full title of the file,
date of electronic publication, name of the online academic
conference (list) that has archived the file (here it is
IOUDAIOS), and then the address of the LISTSERV fileserver, here
given as listserv@yorkvm1 (BITNET) or listserv@vm1.yorku.ca
(Internet). The LISTSERV file here is SABBATH ARTICLE. The name of
a LISTSERV file in this guide is always written in capital
letters. This is done simply to distinguish them from FTP file
names, which are always case sensitive. LISTSERV is not case
sensitive so they may be typed in lower and/or upper case letters.
There are two ways in which to retrieve a document from a LISTSERV
fileserver, once you know the address and file name. You can send
an e-mail message directly to a fileserver (leave the subject line
blank and turn off any automatic signature files). To retrieve the
above file, for example, send an e-mail message to
listserv@yorkvm1 or listserv@vm1.yorku.ca with a single line
saying:
GET SABBATH ARTICLE
Those on PROFS mailers should note that messages sent to LISTSERV
must be sent as MAIL and not as DOCUMENT.
If your system has interactive messaging capability (BITNET
systems do, Internet systems do not), you can send the GET command
from the system prompt (not as a mail message) like this:
TELL LISTSERV AT YORKVM1 GET SABBATH ARTICLE (VM/CMS users)
SEND LISTSERV AT YORKVM1 GET SABBATH ARTICLE (VAX users)
This command may differ on other systems. Note that even if your
system has interactive TELL or SEND capability, it is nonetheless
safer to send LISTSERV commands as mail messages, as they will not
be subject to becoming "lost" on the way to the remote computer.
You can also send more than one command at a time in a mail
message to LISTSERV, just remember to put only one GET file name
request per line.
For a complete list of useful LISTSERV commands, send the command
INFO REFCARD to any LISTSERV.
Some systems will send a file retrieved from LISTSERV directly to
your filelist or account directory. Other systems will send you a
message when the file has arrived. The file may arrive in a few
minutes or a few hours, depending on the size of the file and the
time of day. If you are on a VAX/VMS machine, enter the command
RECE * to move the file into your account directory or filelist.
Then enter TYPE SABBATH ARTICLE to read the file. If you are using
an IBM VM/CMS system, type RDRL or READERLIST and use the RECEIVE
command to move the file into your account filelist. The file can
then be read by entering XEDIT SABBATH ARTICLE at the Ready;
prompt. For more information on how to use various system mailers
and editors, such as UNIX, VAX and VM, see System-Specific Guides,
page 28
You can add the command F=MAIL to the end of a request for a file
from LISTSERV and this will cause the file to be sent as a mail
message straight to your mailbox. This command is used as follows:
GET SABBATH ARTICLE F=MAIL and can be used interactively or within
a mail message to LISTSERV.
* How to Retrieve LISTSERV List Indexes and Files *
If you simply want to retrieve the entire logbooks or some other
file from a LISTSERV fileserver, send the command INDEX listname
to the address of the list. For example: to get a list of files
and logbooks available from the LISTSERV list about humanities
computing, HUMANIST, send the command INDEX HUMANIST as an e-mail
message to listserv@brownvm. This will return a filelist, which is
a list of all available logbooks and files from HUMANIST. To
retrieve a particular file, send the command GET file name to
listserv@brownvm, where file name is the name of the desired file
taken from the file list.
Searching LISTSERV Logbooks
LISTSERV list logbooks (records of past conversations and
postings) can be searched remotely by sending LDBASE commands as
e-mail messages to a list's database of logbooks. An information
file that explains how to do this is available by sending the
command GET LISTDB MEMO to any LISTSERV address (for example, to
listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca). Charles W.
Bailey Jr., has written a simplified explanation of how to search
LISTSERV logbooks using LDBASE. This document may be retrieved as
the file pacsl_dbms.txt via FTP from the node hydra.uwo.ca in the
/libsoft/ directory. The following will give some brief examples
of how you can send interactive and batch job e-mail messages
using LDBASE to search the logbooks of online academic
conferences. Note that LDBASE will only work with LISTSERV based
lists (not Internet interest groups or USENET newsgroups).
* Batch Jobs With LDBASE
The best way to use LDBASE batch jobs is to start by creating a
permanent file on your e-mail account that can be retrieved into
an e-mail message for sending to LISTSERV. This file should have
the following lines in it:
// JOB ECHO=NO
DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES
// RULES DD *
SEARCH
INDEX
//
I have named this file LDBASE JOB on my e-mail account and simply
retrieve it into a mail item when I wish to search a LISTSERV
database or collection of logbooks. LDBASE can be used to search
the CONTENTS Project for updated sections of the Electric Mystic's
Guide. To do this, send the following LDBASE batch job as an e-
mail message to listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
// JOB ECHO=NO
DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES
// RULES DD *
SEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHIES UPDATE in CONTENTS
INDEX
//
Note that all posted updates of the Electric Mystic's Guide will
use the original section names, such as Bibliographies, Buddhism
and Related Topics, Sacred Texts (Networked Electronic Versions),
an so on as the subject heading plus the word Update. This is done
to facilitate searching for updates via LDBASE. The above command
will return the following e-mail message:
Item # Date Time Recs Subject
------ ---- ---- ---- -------
000051 92/05/19 11:33 107 Directory of Online Religion Scholars
000080 92/06/25 12:00 166 Electronic Buddhist Archives ( Part 1
000081 92/06/25 12:05 308 Electronic Buddhist Archives ( Part 2
000117 92/10/09 20:31 869 BTS BULLETIN ( 2/2)
000150 92/11/11 15:31 258 MISC: Bibliographies Update
000154 92/12/10 16:39 80 Changes to the Contents Project
Now you can send another LDBASE batch job that will return the
actual bibliographies section update. Note that you must repeat
the search command:
// JOB ECHO=NO
DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES
// RULES DD *
SEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHIES UPDATE in CONTENTS
PRINT 150
//
LDBASE can be used to search the past conversations on online
academic conferences such as IOUDAIOS, ELENCHUS and HUMANIST.
Simply e-mail the batch job to the address of the LISTSERV list in
question (for example, listserv@brownvm for HUMANIST), change the
word "CONTENTS" (above) to the list name, and replace
"BIBLIOGRAPHIES UPDATE" with the desired keyword. LDBASE is quite
sophisticated and can use AND, OR, NOT, and other modifiers. For
complete information on how to use LDBASE, send the command GET
LISTDB MEMO to any LISTSERV address (for example, to
listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca).
* Interactive Searching
BITNET users can search remote LISTSERV databases interactively by
first getting the LDBASE user interface (program) by sending the
following commands to your nearest LISTSERV:
For VM/CMS systems: TELL LISTSERV GET LDBASE
TELL LISTSERV GET LSVIUCV MODULE
For VAX/VMS systems: SEND LISTSERV GET LDBASE COM
After you have received these files into your e-mail account disk,
enter the command LDBASE at your system prompt. This will start
your interactive session. LDBASE will ask you to enter the
LISTSERV address you wish to connect to by default. I answered
TEMPLEVM to this, as this is where the HELP-NET logbooks are kept.
LDBASE will then ask you to "Please enter the userid of the
LISTSERV server at TEMPLEVM, or a blank line if it is "LISTSERV".
Just hit enter. Now you will see the following appear on your
screen:
welcome to listserv@templevm - release 1.7e, backbone server.
Cpu model 3084, dasd model 3380.
Enter command, or "quit" to exit:
A few sample commands that you could send are as follows:
search FTP in HELP-NET
Which will return the message:
Search started...
CONNECT= 00:09:12 VIRTCPU= 000:00.16 TOTCPU= 000:00.33
--> Database HELP-NET, 694 hits.
To get a complete list of all these hits, send the command:
SENDBACK INDEX. This will send you the following file as an e-mail
message:
Item # Date Time Recs Subject
------ ---- ---- ---- -------
000016 92/01/07 11:34 9 RE: Internet lists
000025 92/01/08 20:07 16 FTP addresses
000026 92/01/09 11:11 21 Re: FTP addresses
000035 92/01/10 17:35 13 Anon FTP of RFCs?
000037 92/01/10 18:31 20 Re: Anon FTP of RFCs?
000039 92/01/11 14:11 14 email load on NSFNET
000042 92/01/11 21:04 16 Re: email load on NSFNET
000043 92/01/11 20:19 96 NEW LIST: VIRTU-L - VR /
000049 92/01/12 11:08 12 Re: RFC's, NIC's and
000053 92/01/13 13:00 37 Re: email load on NSFNET
000070 92/01/16 15:20 11 FTP'ing and GET command
and so on ....
If you wanted to read the e-mail message with the subject FTP'ing
and GET command, then send the command SENDBACK PRINT 0070. This
will return the original mail message to your e-mail box. If you
want to interactively search another database, start your session
by entering LDBASE listserv@address, where listserv@address is the
address of the list you are interested in searching (for example,
ldbase listserv@uottawa).
Interactive searching with LDBASE is interesting but unfortunately
slow and will only return files under thirty lines long directly
to you. Longer files must be sent as e-mail with the command
SENDBACK, which serves to defeat the purpose of interactive
searching. The best way to use LDBASE is by sending what are
called "batch" jobs (explained above) to the LISTSERV that holds
the logbooks in which you are interested. See the document LDBASE
MEMO for complete information on interactive and batch searching.
Using FTP Mail Gateways
For those who do are not on the Internet and do not have access to
FTP, there are two servers that will process FTP commands which
are sent as e-mail. One of these servers is called BITFTP and the
other is FTPMAIL. Either sever will retrieve any file from an
anonymous FTP server on the Internet. These FTP mail gateways are
far from perfect and will not always produce the desired results.
They work best for retrieving small to medium size text files. The
following will give you some examples of using these servers and
tell you where to get more information on how to use them.
* FTPMAIL
The best way to explain these FTP servers is by giving you a few
tested examples to try for yourself. The following examples will
show you how to get the index, a bibliography and a binary file
from the CONTENTS Project Religious Studies archive.
All FTPMAIL requests must be sent to the address
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. Leave the subject line blank and turn off
your signature file before sending the mail message. If you do not
know how to turn of your signature file, the command quit (below)
will suffice. Note that you do not need to specify login and
password, as these are already defaulted to "anonymous" and your
e-mail address. Here is an example of retrieving an FTP archive
index:
connect panda1.uottawa.ca
chdir pub/religion
get ftp-index.txt
quit
This will return an e-mail message that includes the following
notice:
There are [x number of] jobs ahead of this one in our
queue.
You should expect the results to be mailed to you
within a day or so. We try to drain the request queue
every 30 minutes, but sometimes it fills up with
enough junk that it takes until midnight (Pacific
time) to clear.
Note that the "reply" or "answer" command in your
mailer will not work for this message or any other
mail you receive from FTPMAIL. To send requests to
FTPMAIL, send an original mail message, not a reply.
As shown in the header of this message, complaints
should be sent to the
ftpmail-admin@inet-gw-2.pa.dec.com address rather than
to postmaster, since our postmaster is not responsible
for fixing FTPMAIL problems. There is no way to delete
this request, so be sure that it has failed before you
resubmit it or you will receive multiple copies of
anything you have requested.
There is no way to specify that your request should be
tried only during certain hours of the day. If you
need a file from a time-restricted FTP server, you
probably cannot get it via FTPMAIL.
If you are not sure what files are in a FTP archive, then send the
ls command, which will give you a list of all files and
subdirectories in any one directory, or send the ls -lR command,
which will return to you a "recursive" listing of all files in the
current directory and all subdirectories and their files as well.
connect panda1.uottawa.ca
chdir pub/religion
ls
quit
To get a bibliography that is in ASCII text on the CONTENTS
Project FTP fileserver, use the following as a guide:
connect panda1.uottawa.ca
chdir pub/religion
get shaman-1.txt
quit
To get a binary file, you will have to first have it encoded into
ASCII before it is mailed to you. Here is an example:
connect panda1.uottawa.ca
binary
uuencode
chdir pub/religion
get unzip42.exe
quit
You will need to use uudecode before trying to execute any binary
file. Remember to always scan binary files for any viruses before
and after unzipping or executing. VMS, DOS, and Macintosh versions
of uudecode, atob, compress and compact are often available
through your university's computing services, if they are not
already on your network system.
You can get further information about using FTPMAIL by sending the
command HELP to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com as an e-mail message.
* BITFTP -- Princeton BITNET FTP Server
BITFTP provides a mail interface that allows BITNET, NetNorth, and
EARN users to FTP files from sites on the Internet. For complete
instructions on how to use BITFTP, send the e-mail command HELP to
bitftp@pucc or bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. Net users on VMS systems
should send the command VMS to bitftp@pucc or
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu to request a collection of tips provided
by BITFTP users on how to handle binary files from BITFTP on VMS
systems.
As with FTPMAIL, the load on BITFTP is often very heavy, and
request backlogs are often so large that it may take several days
for a file to get to you once BITFTP receives your request. If
your system allows you to send interactive messages, you can
inquire about BITFTP's backlog by sending the command TELL BITFTP
AT PUCC HOW ARE YOU?
Unlike FTPMAIL, BITFTP is not able to provide service to nodes
that are not directly on EARN or BITNET or NetNorth. If you are
not directly on these networks, BITFTP will tell you so. At this
point you should use FTPMAIL (above) as an alternative.
If BITFTP is unable to connect to the FTP node you specify, it
will send you a e-mail message after the first attempt, but will
keep trying at intervals over three days. The only additional mail
file you will receive will be when the connection is made
successfully or when BITFTP gives up after three days.
Here is a sample BITFTP request for the ASCII text bibliography,
Religious Studies: Selected Reference Works at the Western
Washington University Libraries (1992):
FTP panda1.uottawa.ca NETDATA
cd pub/religion
get reference-works-biblio.txt
quit
Note that if the username is "anonymous" (it almost always is), no
password is required; BITFTP will use your userid and e-mail
address as the password.
Questions about BITFTP and suggestions for improvements should be
directed to Melinda Varian, maint@pucc or
maint@pucc.princeton.edu.
Using BITFTP or FTPMAIL to retrieve binary files, or even
Postscript files, can be more than a bit tricky (although they do
work quite well when retrieving ASCII text files). One way around
having to deal with these FTP gateways is to post a query to a
LISTSERV list asking if someone on the Internet could retrieve the
program or document for you and send it via surface mail on a
diskette. This is best used with reserve, and if you have been on
the Net for any length of time, chances are that you have acquired
a few e-mail friends who will be willing to do this for you, if
contacted directly. Always offer to repay the individual for
mailing costs and time.
* Find Out More About LISTSERV *
If you require further help in retrieving LISTSERV files please
contact your local computing services or retrieve the following
help files: LISTSERV MEMO (intended to help non-BITNET or non-
VM/CMS users in sending commands to LISTSERV and LISTSERV lists,
highly recommended reading) from listserv@bitnic and BITNET
USERHELP from listserv@marist and LISTSERV BASICS from the HELP-
NET LISTSERV fileserver at listserv@templevm or
listserv@vm.temple.edu. These are very helpful and informative
introductory files. Another useful document that explains BITNET
and LISTSERV is file HOSTINFO NOTES from listserv@jhuvm or
listserv@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu. This document contains a bibliography
of other useful references. These documents may also be available
at your own site.
Retrieving Documents via FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is what those who have access to the
Internet use to transfer files from one computer to another. FTP
can retrieve an electronic copy of the entire Bible from the other
side of the globe in a matter of minutes. On the Internet there
are hundreds of thousands of files and programs that reside on FTP
fileservers. To FTP a file or a program from a fileserver you need
to know the domain name of the system from which you want to
transfer a file. You also need to know the directory that the file
is in and the name of the file. In this guide a domain name is
referred to as a node. Wherever possible, nodes have been given in
numbers and letters, as some systems prefer one or the other.
Using FTP is referred to as a session. Note that only those users
on an Internet system will have FTP capability. BITNET users will
not be able to make direct use of FTP (see Using FTP Mail
Gateways, page 13).
FTP is quite complex (surprised?) and a complete description of
this network tool would exceed forty or so pages. In stead of
overwhelming you with everything-about-FTP this guide will simply
tell you what you need to know to perform basic tasks such as
FTPing to a node (Internet accessible computer), changing
directories and retrieving low ASCII text files, compressed
documents, and binary programs. If you imagine the Net as a
building full of filing cabinets, then using FTP is like going to
a particular filing cabinet (a node), opening one drawer
(directory) at a time, searching through the files in the drawer
and taking home one or more of these files (documents, programs,
sound recordings, photographs, graphic images, entire books,
almost anything). FTP can be that simple. As with all Net tools,
it is impossible for you to break anything while using FTP, and no
one will ever know if you make a few mistakes trying out something
new.
It is important that your FTP sessions be restricted to after the
normal business hours of the site that you are FTPing to (if you
are able to determine where that site is located). This is done to
reduce the load on FTP sites during peak local times. Failure to
observe this FTP etiquette has resulted in FTP access to certain
sites being discontinued, due to heavy use at the wrong time of
day. Remember that local business hours of a distant site may be
different from your own clock, due to different time zones.
* Using FTP
FTP sessions have three basic stages; connecting to a remote host
(computer), changing to the desired directory and retrieving
files. Note that FTP software varies slightly throughout the Net.
If the following instructions prove unhelpful, enter the command
HELP or ? for more information once you have started your FTP
session. This guide cannot give precise details on how to start
your FTP session, due to the wide variation in systems throughout
the Net. In most cases you start a session simply by entering ftp
node.address at your system prompt. Remember to consult local
system manuals and support staff if more direction is needed.
When a file is available via FTP the Electric Mystic's Guide will
give the full name of the file, its node address, the directory
the file is found in and the name of the FTP file itself. The
following example provides information on the electronic text of
the Bible.
The Bible (King James Version). Available as the files
bible10.zip and bible10.txt from the Project Gutenberg
archives via FTP from the node mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu
(128.174.201.12) in the /extext/etext92/ directory.
The node address is mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.201.12). Both
the letter address and number address is given, as some systems
prefer one or the other.
The directory is /extext/etext92/. Note that unlike the backslash
" \ " used by MSDOS, FTP uses a frontslash " / ", familiar to
those who use UNIX.
The file names are bible10.zip and bible10.txt.
With these pieces of information a users may then retrieve the
file to his or her own local e-mail account.
* Connecting to a Host (Node)
A host generally refers to any computer that can be accessed from
either a local terminal or a remote computer. Hosts are also
referred to as network servers or mainframes. A host will have one
or more network addresses called nodes. Nodes are how computers on
the Net tell each other where they are located and how to find
them. Node addresses take the form of a series of either letters
or numbers, separated by periods, such as mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu or
(128.174.201.12). Note that the brackets ( ) are not part of the
node address. Think of a host like a store and the node as the
store address. Here is an sample session of FTPing to the CONTENTS
Project archive. Start by entering:
FTP panda1.uottawa.ca
This command returns the following:
VM TCP/IP FTP V2R2
Connecting to panda1.uottawa.ca 137.122.6.16, port 21
220 panda1 FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready.
USER (identify yourself to the host):
To which you answer by typing: anonymous. Note that login names
are case sensitive, and anonymous is always lower case, unless
otherwise specified. Now you will see the following message:
>>>USER anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password:
By "ident" is meant your full e-mail address. Sometimes FTP
sessions will require you to enter guest as a password. FTP will
usually tell you what is required. The CONTENTS Project archives
are in the directory /pub/religion/. On some systems you can now
type cd pub/religion but on others you must type cd pub then cd
religion. If one way fails, then try the other way. Note that on
the vast majority of systems, directory and file names are case
sensitive. They must be typed exactly as they appear.
The command cd means "change directory". Once you have moved to
the desired directory, enter the command ls to see what files are
archive there. If you enter the command list or dir, this will
give you file names, as well as their size (in bytes) and the date
they were archived. This can be important if you have limited disk
space.
Now you are ready to FTP any low ASCII text files. These files
usually have the extension .txt or .text and if there is no
extension, then the file is probably a low ASCII file. ASCII files
include texts, program source codes, electronic mail messages,
UNIX shell archives, uuencoded files and Postscript files. Note
that binhexed Macintosh files will have the extension .hqx and
must be treated as ASCII files.
At this point you could FTP the file muslim_biblio.txt to see how
things work. This is done by entering the command get
muslim_biblio.txt. When the transfer is complete, simply type
QUIT, CLOSE or BYE to return to your own site and e-mail account.
The file muslim_biblio.txt also exists as a nicely formatted
Postscript file, under the name of muslim_biblio.ps. Postscript
files are ASCII, not binary files. Here is what the FTP session
for retrieving this Postscript file looks like:
Ready; system prompt of CM/VMS site
FTP panda1.uottawa.ca start your session
VM TCP/IP FTP V2R2
Connecting to panda1.uottawa.ca 137.122.6.16, port 21
220 panda1 FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready.
USER (identify yourself to the host):
anonymous login (user) name is anonymous
>>>USER anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password: here you type your e-mail address
>>>PASS ********
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Command:
cd pub/religion changed to the desired directory
>>>CWD pub/religion
250 CWD command successful.
Command:
get muslim_biblio.ps retrieve desired file
>>>PORT 137,122,6,6,40,79
200 PORT command successful.
>>>RETR muslim_biblio.ps
150 ASCII data connection for muslim_biblio.ps (137.122.6.6,10319)
168237 bytes)**
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
170314 bytes transferred. Transfer rate 56.21 Kbytes/sec.**
Command:
quit finish your session
>>>QUIT
221 Goodbye.
Ready;
**Note that after each transfer, FTP tells you what files was
transferred, how big it was, and how fast it was sent to you. The
numbers down the right side are meaningless and safely ignored.
If you are not sure if the file you want is in ASCII or binary or
some other format, the UNIX command file will tell you what format
a file is in. While in your FTP session, enter the command file
filename (for example, file muslim_biblio.ps) to find out about
the file in question. (This command is not always available).
* FTPing Binary Files
If you are retrieving a file that has the extensions .exe .Z
.zip then you must use the binary mode. Type binary in your
session before issuing the get command. Binary .exe files often
have README files archived with them that provide retrieval and
installation instructions. The extension .Z is generally reserved
for UNIX compressed files. These files must be retrieved as binary
files and uncompressed on a UNIX machine. It is possible to
uncompress .Z files on IBM and Macintosh systems, your
university's computing services should have utilities available
for this (see Uncompressing Files, page 22). The extension .zip
(sometime .ZIP) denotes a binary file that has been compressed
using PKZIP or similar utility. These files can be software
programs, wordprocessor files, hypertext programs or otherwise.
After retrieving them, you will need to copy these files to your
personal computer and unzip with a PKUNZIP utility. To switch back
to ASCII mode, simply enter the command ascii.
As it can be a royal pain in the neck to fiddle with binary and
compressed files (particularly if you are not on a UNIX operating
system), many text files appear on the Net in two or more formats;
ASCII text, Postscript, wordprocessor, TEX and so on. This guide
has attempted to indicate whenever an ASCII version is available.
* Various Common FTP Commands and Their Use
There is over 70 commands available on most FTP implementations,
the following are the commands you will use most often. Note that
not all commands will work at every FTP site.
ascii
ASCII is the default setting for FTP, use this command
to return to ascii mode after retrieving a binary
file.
binary
Will switch your session to binary mode. Use this
command before retrieving binary programs (.exe),
zipped files (.zip), or compressed files (.Z).
cd directory-name
Will move you into the directory indicated by
directory-name.
cd .. or chdirup
Will move you one sub-directory up the directory
chain.
get file.name
Will retrieve a file into your local e-mail account.
hash
Tells FTP to send a # to you screen for every 1K it
has transmitted. This allows you to monitor the
transfer, but is not often necessary, as many FTP
sites will return a current byte count while the
transfer is in progress.
help command
This will usually tell you a bit about the command in
question.
list or dir
This lists all files in the current directory, along
with there size in bytes and the date they were
archived.
ls
Will list all files in the current directory.
ls -lR
Will list all files, directories and subdirectories at
the FTP site. This can generate a very, very long
report, so use with caution.
mget *.*
Will retrieve all of the files in the current
directory into your e-mail account. Use this command
with caution as it may result in exceeding your
available account disk space. You may have to answer
yes or y before each file is transmitted.
prompt
Tells FTP to prompt you before transferring each file
when used with mget. It the FTP site is already set to
prompt, then typing prompt will turn this feature off.
pwd
Reveals the full name of the current directory and
subdirectory(s).
* FTP Tips
* Read the README, READ_ME, ReadMe, files - they usually contain
important and helpful information. Also look out for INDEX or 00-
index files - these will contain an index of the available files
in the current directory, or sometimes the entire archive.
* The directory pub will be the most common primary subdirectory
(it is short form for public), and is a good place to start, when
hunting around FTP archives.
* Some systems will prompt you with the word OPEN, to this you
respond with the FTP node address, for example, OPEN
panda1.uottawa.ca. Sometimes you will also see the prompt USER,
this requires the response anonymous.
* If you want to read a file before retrieving it, you can do this
only with text files that are not compressed, with the following
commands:
get filename.txt tt: (from VMS)
get filename.txt - or
get filename.txt |more (from UNIX)
This should not be overused, as it ties up sites with heavy
traffic and is rude to other users waiting to login.
* VMS FTP directory syntax and commands are slightly different
from UNIX syntax. If you see a directory name such as
[FILESERV.DOC.DISK1], then use cdup or cd - to ascend the tree.
If you descend only one level at a time, you may type just the
name of the directory. Note that VMS uses square brackets [ ] as
opposed to the UNIX backslash.
Other VMS FTP Commands:
cd [.doc.disk1] moves you down to [FILESERV.DOC.DISK1]
cd doc moves you down to [FILESERV.DOC]
cd disk1 moves you down to [FILESERV.DOC.DISK1]
cd [-.disk2] moves across to [FILESERV.DOC.DISK2]
cdup or cd - moves up to [FILESERV.DOC]
cd disk2 goes down to [FILESERV.DOC.DISK2]
cd [fileserv] takes you immediately to the root
[FILESERV], from your current subdirectory
* Common FTP Problems
* On some non-UNIX based systems, you will have to rename the file
you are retrieving, if it has a long name or unusual extensions.
If the file you want to get refused to transfer, try giving it a
new, shorter name. For example, get astrology-and-judaism-
biblio.txt astro.txt. This will send the file to you as astro.txt.
* If you misspell anonymous when starting a FTP session, you will
get the reply "Login incorrect". You can start again by entering
user anonymous.
Please note that the Electric Mystic's Guide is not meant to tell
you how to use your local mailing system. There are simply too
many different systems and different sets of commands. This is why
it is important for the new networker to take local courses in
electronic mail and obtain e-mail manuals intended for local
users. These steps will save you considerable time and
frustration.
Uncompressing Files
File compression is the ugly side of the Net. There are many
different compression programs floating around out there, but the
ones you will come across in the Electric Mystic's Guide are
rather straightforward (.zip .hqx .Z and .tar are the most
common). The following will help you identify these extensions and
give information on how to uncompress them. The best source of
information on compression programs and file handling is the
document, Guide to File Compression, Archiving and Test Binary
Formats, (David Lemson, lemson@uiuc.edu), available as the file
compression via FTP to the node ftp.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) in
the /doc/pcnet/ directory. This document lists most compression
programs, the programs needed to uncompress each one (for DOS,
Macintosh, UNIX, VM/CMS, Amiga, VMS, Apple 2, Atari, OS/2, and
Windows3 operating systems), and where these programs may be found
on the Net.
* Common Compression Formats and Their Uncompression Programs
Note that the extensions are sometimes capitalized.
.arc Uncompressed with arc602.exe (DOS), ArcMac1.3c (Mac),
arc521 (UNIX), arcutil2 (VM/CMS).
.exe Not a compressed file - this is a binary program that
may be self extracting.
.hqx Macintosh BinHexed file (treat as ASCII). Uncompressed
with xbin23.zip (DOS), BinHex4.0 (Mac), mcvert
(UNIX), binhex (VM/CMS). BinHexed files can be
UnBinHexed with BinHex 4.0 or Stuffit. BinHex5.0
format is a MacBinary format, while BinHex 4.0 files
are ASCII format.
.sit Macintosh Stuffit format. Uncompressed with
unsit30.zip (DOS), StuffItLite (Mac), unsit (UNIX),
not available (VM/CMS).
.tar UNIX program for compressing many files into one for
quick transfer. Tar files are often in compressed
format and look like this tar.Z (treat as binary).
Uncompressed with tar.zip or tarread.arc or
extar10.zip or ltarv1.zip (DOS), UnTar2.0 (Mac), on
UNIX you need to use to commands: uncompress
filname.tar.Z and then tar xf filename.tar (UNIX), not
available (VM/CMS).
.ps Not a compressed file - this is an ASCII Postscript
file for printing on laser printers.
.uue Uuencoded (treat as ASCII). Uncompressed with
toaduu20.zip (DOS), uutool2.0.3 (Mac), uudecode
(UNIX), arcutil (VM/CMS).
.Z UNIX compressed file (treat as binary). Uncompressed
on UNIX systems with the command uncompress
filename.Z. Uncompressed with u16.zip (DOS),
MacCompress3.2 (MAC).
.zip PKZIP file (treat as binary). Uncompressed with
pkz110eu.exe or most recent version of pkunzip.exe
(DOS), UnZip1.1 (Mac), unzip50 (UNIX), arcutil2
(VM/CMS).
Retrieve David Lemson's document (above) for details on where
these programs may be obtained on the Net or contact your
computing help centre or computer supply store.
* Uncompressing and Printing UNIX Compressed (.Z) Files on
Macintosh
UNIX compressed (.Z) files can be uncompressed with the
decompression program called MacCompress 3.2. Note that the Apple
laser printer, LaserWriter Utility, can print Postscript files
that have been uncompressed with MacCompress 3.2.
* Retrieving and Using Graphic (Picture) Files
See the following document for complete details on handling
graphic files. The Internet contains thousands of pictures that
can be downloaded and displayed on your computer screen. These
pictures cover all subjects, and also include a number of
uncovered subjects.
Howard, John. alt.pictures.binaries Frequenently Asked
Questions. For detailed information on how to retrieve
and view graphic files such as .gif and .jpg, retrieve
the documents Part1.Z Part2.Z Part3.Z via FTP to
ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.2 or 137.39.1.9 or 192.48.96.2)
in the /pub/usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/
directory. Also available via e-mail message by
sending the commands send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part1 and send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part2 and send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part3 to the mail-
server@pit-manager.mit.edu address.
* Find Out More About FTP *
For more information on how to use FTP, retrieve the files FTP
PRIMER and FTP SAMPLE from the HELP-NET LISTSERV fileserver at
listserv@templevm or listserv@vm.temple.edu. See also the document
Lists of Internet Sites Accepting Anonymous FTP (Jon Granrose,
1991) available as the file ftp.list via FTP from the node
pilot.njin.net in the /pub/ftp-list/ directory. Also available by
sending the e-mail message GET FTP LIST with the subject of
LISTSERV-REQUEST to odin@pilot.njin.net. For more information on
how to FTP binary files, retrieve the file Getting Binaries via
FTP, (Brian O'Neill, 1991), via FTP as the file binaries_ftp.txt.
from the node hydra.uwo.ca in the /libsoft/ directory.
__________________________________________________________________
* Selected Network Guides and Useful Information Files *
__________________________________________________________________
The best source of information on how to use the Internet is the
Net itself. The following is a listing of some of the more helpful
information documents, Net bibliographies, user manuals and
hypertext guides that are freely available on the Net. The end of
this section lists guides that are available in print from
publishers. Print guides are particularly useful for those not
connected with an academic institution and also for Net users who
are at institutions that do not provide sufficient documentation,
support and training for online researching and computer mediated
communication.
* General Information Documents About the Net
Bailey, Charles W., Jr. "Electronic Publishing on Networks:
A Selective Bibliography of Recent Works." The
Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 2 (1992):
13-20. This bibliography presents selected paper and
electronic sources concerned with network-based
electronic publishing. Covers items published after
1989 and is thus useful for acquiring current
informtion. Available from to listserv@uhupvm1 or
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu as the file BAILEY PRV3N2.
Barron, Billy. How to Find Out Someone's E-mail Address
Without Using the Telephone. (1992). Available from
listserv@bitnic.educom.edu or listserv@bitnic as the
file ADDRESS BARRON_B
Barron, Billy. UNT's Accessing On-Line Bibliographic
Databases. (1992). A directory of online library
catalogues. Available via FTP as libraries.txt
(ASCII), libraries.ps (Postscript), and libraries.wp5
(WordPerfect 5.1) from the node ftp.unt.edu in the
/library/ directory.
Barron, Billy. Using Wide Area Networks for Research.
Available from listserv@bitnic.educom.edu or
listserv@bitnic as the file WAN BARRON_B
Bowers, Karen. et al. FYI on Where to Start: A Bibliography
of Internetworking Information. (1990). Available via
FTP as the file fyi3.txt from the node nic.ddn.mil in
the /rfc/ directory. This FYI (For Your Information)
RFC (Request For Comments) is a bibliography of
information about TCP/IP internetworking, prepared by
the User Services Working Group of the Internet
Engineering Task Force. Rather technical in focus.
Ciolek, T. Matthew. Internet Voyager. Social Scientist's
Guidebook to AARNET: Internet Online Information
Services. (1992). The file internet-voyager is
available via FTP from the node sunsite.unc.edu in the
/pub/docs/about-the-net/libsoft/ directory. An
extensive listing of network accessible archives,
online conferences, databases, serials, and research
centres of value to networked social scientists.
Sources of information are rated according to range,
quality and "freshness". The node sunsite.unc.edu is
filled with many valuable files and is well exploring,
subdirectory by subdirectory.
Condon, Christopher. BITNET USERHELP. (1990). Available from
listserv@marist or listserv@cmuccvma as the file
BITNET USERHELP. Explains what is BITNET, how to send
files and use the TELL command, how to read a e-mail
header and e-mail address and explains servers, lists
and relays. This document is highly recommended for
new BITNET users.
December, John. Information Sources: the Internet and
Computer-Mediated Communication. (1992). The file
internet-cmc is available via FTP from the node
ftp.rpi.edu in the /pub/communications/ directory.
Summarizes sources of information about the Internet
and computer mediated communication. This document
also contains access information for a large number of
Internet guides and information files.
FAQ: How to Find People's E-mail Address. This document
provides information on a variety of techniques for
finding e-mail addresses. Available from USENET
newsgroups: comp.mail.misc -- soc.net-people --
news.newusers.questions and news.answers. Also
available from mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu by
sending the mail message: send
usenet/comp.mail.misc/faq:_how_to_find_people_s_e-
mail_addresses and available via FTP from the node
pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58) in the
/pub/usenet/comp.mail.misc/ directory as the file
FAQ:_How_to_find_people_s_E-mail_addresses. Also see
the document, How to Find Out Someone's E-mail Address
Without Using the Telephone, (Billy Barron, 1992) by
sending the mail message: GET ADDRESS BARRON_B to
listserv@bitnic.
Granrose, Jon. Lists of Internet Sites Accepting Anonymous
FTP. (1991). Available as the file ftp.list via FTP
from the node pilot.njin.net in the directory
/pub/ftp-list/. Also available by sending the e-mail
message GET FTP LIST with the subject of LISTSERV-
REQUEST to odin@pilot.njin.net.
Hallman, Judy. Campus-Wide Information Systems (CWIS).
Available as the file cwis-l via FTP from the node
ftp.oit.unc.edu in the /pub/docs/ directory.
Howard, John. alt.pictures.binaries Frequenently Asked
Questions. For detailed information on how to retrieve
and view graphic files such as .gif and .jpg, retrieve
the documents Part1.Z Part2.Z Part3.Z via FTP to
ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.2 or 137.39.1.9 or 192.48.96.2)
in the /pub/usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/
directory. Also available via e-mail message by
sending the commands send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part1 and send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part2 and send
usenet/news.answers/pictures-faq/part3 to the mail-
server@pit-manager.mit.edu address.
Kind, Irving. Babel: A Listing of Computer Oriented
Abbreviations and Acronyms. Available via FTP as the
file babel93a.txt from the node ftp.temple.edu in the
/pub/info/help-net/ directory.
Lemson, David. Guide to File Compression, Archiving and
Test-Binary Formats. (1991). The file compression is
available via FTP from the node ftp.cso.uiuc.edu in
the /doc/pcnet/ directory.
Lincoln, Barbara. WAIS Bibliography. (1991). The file
bibliography.txt is available via FTP from
quake.think.com in the /pub/wais/wais-discussion/
directory.
Maas, Robert Elton. MaasInfo Archie. (1991). How to use the
Archie service to find out where files are available
on the Internet. Available via FTP as the file
MaasInfo.Archie from the node aarnet.edu.au in the
/pub/doc/ directory.
Maas, Robert Elton. MaasInfo HowNet. (1992). Gives brief
descriptions of how to get started using various
network services (mostly on Internet and BITNET).
Available via FTP as the file MaasInfo.HowNet from the
node aarnet.edu.au in the /pub/doc/ directory.
Maas, Robert Elton. MaasInfo TopIndex: The Index of Indexes.
(1992). Available via FTP as the file
MaasInfo.TopIndex from the node aarnet.edu.au in the
/pub/doc/ directory. This is a comprehensive guide to
over 50 Net indexes on a wide variety of subjects.
This directory also contains a number of other
Internet guides and information files.
Malkin, G and Marine, A. FYI on Questions and Answers:
Answers to Commonly Asked New Internet User Questions.
(1992). Available via FTP as the file fyi4.txt from
the node nic.ddn.mil in the /rfc/ directory.
Malkin, G and Reynolds, J. FYI on Questions and Answers:
Answers to Commonly Asked Experienced Internet User
Questions. (1991). Available via FTP as the file
fyi7.txt from the node nic.ddn.mil in the /rfc/
directory.
O'Neill, Brian, Getting Binaries via FTP. (1991). Available
via FTP as the file binaries_ftp.txt. from the node
hydra.uwo.ca in the /libsoft/ directory.
Parker, Elliott. Computer Networking. (1991). Available from
comserv@rpiecs as COMPUNET BIBLIO. Also available as
the file parker.bib via FTP from the node
infolib.murdoch.edu.au in the /pub/bib/ directory.
Ray, Ron. Obtaining Host and Address Information. (1990).
Available from listserv@jhuvm or
listserv@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu as the file HOSTINFO NOTES.
Explains how to find host and e-mail address
information on BITNET, Internet and UUCP.
SGML Frequently Asked Questions. This document provides
answers to questions that are frequently posted to the
USENET newsgroup comp.text.sgml and is of use to those
unfamiliar with Standard Generalized Markup Language.
Available from AIBI-L, listserv@uottawa or
listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca as SGML FAQ. See also the
file SGML Bibliography, by Robin Cover, Available from
AIBI-L, listserv@uottawa or
listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca as SGML BIBLIO1 SGML
BIBLIO2 SGML BIBLIO3 SGML BIBLIO4.
Stanton, Deidre E. Using Networked Information Resources: A
Bibliography. (1992). 101 pages. The file stanton.bib
is available via FTP from infolib.murdoch.edu.au in
the /pub/bib/ directory. Very extensive.
Strangelove, Michael. Directory of Electronic Journals and
Newsletters. (Edition 3.0, March 1993). Available via
FTP from the CONTENTS Project FTP archive at the node
panda1.uottawa.ca as file ejournals.txt in the
/pub/religion/ directory. Also available via LISTSERV
from listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
as the files EJOURNL1 DIRECTRY and EJOURNL2 DIRECTRY.
Strangelove, Natalie. Directory of Networked Resources for
Social Work Studies. (1992). Available via LISTSERV
from listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
as the file SOCWORK DIRECTRY.
Yanoff, Scott. Special Internet Connections. (1992). A six
page directory of special Internet archives and
servers. Available as the file inet.services.txt via
FTP from csd4.csd.uwm.edu in the /pub/ directory and
also posted every month to the USENET newsgroup
alt.bbs.internet.
* Network User Guides
The AARNet Resource Guide. Available as the files
resource_guide_archives.txt
resource_guide_compresources.txt
resource_guide_directories.txt
resource_guide_libraries.txt
resource_guide_netmembers.txt via FTP from the node
aarnet.edu.au in the /pub/resource-guide/ directory.
Farley, Laine. (ed.) Library Resources on the Internet.
(1991). Available as the file libcat-guide via FTP
from the node dla.ucop.edu in the /pub/internet/
directory. How to search online library catalogues,
with information on related library resources.
Internet Resource Guide. By the NSF Network Service Center.
Available as a variety of ASCII and Postscript files
via FTP from the node nnsc.nsf.net in the /resource-
guide/ directory. See the README file for full
retrieval instuctions.
The Internet Tour. Available as the file internet.tour.txt
via FTP from the node nysernet.org in the /pub/guides/
directory. This document contains an extensive
description of the Internet.
LaQuey, Tracy with Jeanne C. Ryer. The Internet Companion: A
Beginner's Guide to Global Networking.
(Addison-Wesley, 1992). Available as the file
The.Internet.Companion.Z (binary) via FTP from the
node world.std.com in the /OBS/The.Internet.Companion/
directory.
Leach, Michael R. HULINTRO: Harvard University Library
Introduction to Networks. (1992) Available as the file
hulintro.gde (text) via FTP from the node
infolib.murdoch.edu.au in the /pub/gde/netinfo/
directory. This directory also contains many other
useful guides. Also available via LISTSERV from
listserv@harvarda or listserv@harvarda.harvard.edu by
send the command SUBSCRIBE HULINTRO
Kehoe, Brendan P. Zen and the Art of the Internet. (1992).
The files zen-1.0.dvi zen-1.0.PS zen-1.0.tar.Z and
zen-1.0.txt are available via FTP from csn.org in the
/pub/net/zen/ directory. This very useful introductory
guide that is also available in print from Prentice
Hall, Elglewood Cliffs, NJ 076326.
Kochmer, Jonathan. NorthWestNet User Services Internet
Resource Guide (NUSIRG). Available as a variety of
Postscript files via FTP from the node
ftphost.nwnet.net in the /nic/nwnet/user-guide/
directory.
NYSERnet New User's Guide to Useful and Unique Resources on
the Internet. Available as a variety of the files via
FTP from the node nysernet.org in the /pub/guides/
directory. This directory also contains many other
useful guides.
SURAnet Guide to Selected Internet Resources. (1993).
Available via FTP as the file infoguide.xx-xx.txt
(where xx-xx is the date of latest edition) from the
node ftp.sura.net in the /pub/nic/ directory. This
directory also contains many other useful guides and
documents.
Viehland, Dennis W. A Resource Guide to Listservers, BITNET,
Internet, and USENET. (1991). Available as the file
listserv.gde via FTP from the node
infolib.murdoch.edu.au in the /pub/gde/netinfo/
directory. Also available via LISTSERV from
listserv@arizvm1 as the file LISTSERV GUIDE
* System-Specific Guides
Ruedenberg, Lucia. Beginners Guide to Networking on VM/CMS.
Available from listserv@templevm or
listserv@vm.temple.edu as the file CMS GUIDE. This
guide is highly recommended for any users on the
VM/CMS operating system.
St. Sauver, Joe. The VAX Book. (1989). Available in
Postscript and TEX format via FTP from
decoy.uoregon.edu in the /pub/vaxbook/ directory. 326
pages long. The VAX Book is an example-oriented guide
to using a VAX/VMS system in a networked environment.
While it is tailored to the University of Oregon's VAX
8800 system, the skills it illustrates are general
enough to be of interest to users at most other VAX
sites, and even users at many non-VAX sites connected
to the national networks. See the README file for
retrieval details.
Thomas, Eric. LISTSERV MEMO. Available from listserv@uottawa
or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca (or any other LISTSERV)
as the file LISTSERV MEMO. Intended to help non-BITNET
or non-VM/SP users in sending commands to LISTSERV and
LISTSERV lists. This document is highly recommended
for any non-BITNET users and those not on the VM
operating system.
The vi Editor. Available via FTP from ftp.sura.net in the
/pub/nic/network.service.guides/ directory. The vi
Editor is a very brief introduction to basic commands
of the UNIX vi text editor.
* FYI -- The SURAnet Network Information Center *
Many of the documents available in the SURAnet Network Information
Center FTP archive are geared towards the new user of the
Internet. SURAnet has provided several "How To" guides for network
navigation tools such as Telnet, FTP, and e-mail. These guides are
available via FTP to the node ftp.sura.net in the
/pub/nic/network.service.guides/ directory. All suggestions for
additions, comments regarding this FTP archive, or general
Internet questions are welcomed and can be sent to info@sura.net.
Non-UNIX Users Note: Compressed files in this archive may be
uncompressed by retrieving the file without the .Z. For example:
to retrieve zen-1.0.tar.Z uncompressed one would type get
zen-1.0.tar. The contents of entire subdirectories may also be
tarred and optionally compressed. To retrieve, for example, the
/nic/ directory tarred & compressed, one would type (from within
the /pub/ directory) get nic.tar.Z (Warning: this will return a
file over two million bytes in size).
* Print Books About the Net
Frey, Donnalyn and Rick Adams. !%@:: A Directory of
Electronic Mail Addressin and Networks. Sebastopol,
California: O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. 1990.
Internet: Getting Started. Elglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall. 1993. Explains how to join the Internet, the
various types of Internet access, and procedures for
obtaining a unique IP address and domain name. An
extensive list of Internet access providers of all
types is provided. Information regarding access for
countries outside of the United States is included as
well. Finally, the guide explains many concepts
essential to the Internet, such as the Domain Name
System, IP addressing, Internet protocols, and
electronic mail. This is a comprehensive overview of
what the Internet is and how to become a part of it.
Internet: Mailing Lists. Elglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall. 1993. This book lists more than 800 electronic
discussion forums on subjects as varied as TCP/IP
protocols, music research, the Caribbean economy,
science fiction, and animal rights. Complete
information about how to subscribe to each list is
included.
Kehoe, Brendan P. Zen and the Art of the Internet. Elglewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1992. Also freely available
as the files zen-1.0.dvi zen-1.0.PS zen-1.0.tar.Z
and zen-1.0.txt via FTP from the node csn.org in the
/pub/net/zen/ directory.
Kochmer, Jonathan. The Internet Passport. A 550 page guide
which can be ordered from NorthWestNet
(passport@nwnet.net).
Krol, Ed. The Whole Internet: User's Guide and Catalog.
Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.
1992. Very good, if somewhat technical, for those on
UNIX systems. The publisher of The Whole Internet has
established a gopher that you can reach by telnet.
Once inside their gopher server, you can browse among
the table of contents of books, find lists of book
stores in your area that carry their books, find
ordering information, and much more. Internet users
can reach this online publishers catalog via Telnet to
gopher.ora.com (login as gopher).
Lane, Elizabeth and Summerhill, Craig. An Internet Primer
for Librarians and Educators. Meckler. 1992.
LaQuey, Tracey. The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide
to Global Networking. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-
Wesley. 1992.
LaQuey, Tracey. The User's Directory of Computer Networks.
Burlington, Massachusetts: Diigital Press. 1990.
Malamud, Carl. Exploring the Internet: A Technical
Travelogue. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall. 1990.
Quarterman, John. The Matrix: Computer Networks and
Conferencing Systems Worldwide. Bedford,
Massachusetts: Digital Press. 1990.
Strangelove, Michael and Diane Kovacs. Directory of
Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic
Discussion Lists. Washington, DC: Association of
Research Libraries, Office of Scientific and Academic
Publishing (arlhq@cni.org). Third Edition, March 1993.
This is absolutely essential for every networked
individual and institution, and is also a great gift
for that special someone in your life.
Tennant, Roy, John Ober, and Anne G. Lipow. Crossing the
Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook.
Berkeley, California: Library Solutions Institute and
Press. 1990.
* Print Magazines About the Net
Computer-Assisted Research Forum: A Reader-friendly Bulletin
for Academics and Educators in the Humanities. Todd
Blayone, (ed.) cxfw@musica.mcgill.ca (Birks Building,
McGill University, 3520 University Street, Montreal,
Quebec, HA-2A7). Regular column about using the
Internet plus a variety of software reviews.
Electronic Networking: Research, Applications, and Policy.
(Meckler Corporation, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT
06880, e-mail: meckler@jvnc.net).
Matrix News. (Matrix Information and Directory Services,
Inc, P.O. Box 14621, Austin, TX 78761, e-mail
mids@tic.com). Matrix News is a newsletter about
cross-network issues. Networks frequently mentioned
include USENET, UUCP, FidoNet, BITNET, the Internet,
and conferencing systems such as the WELL and
CompuServe. Matrix News is not about any single one of
them. It is about the Matrix, which is all computer
networks worldwide that exchange electronic mail.
selected sample issues available by anonymous FTP or
gopher to tic.com.
Online Access. A quarterly magazine about commercial
networks and databases, with a regular column about
the Internet. (920 N. Franklin Street, Suite 203,
Chicago Il 60610).
Research and Education Networking. (Meckler Corporation, 11
Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880, e-mail:
meckler@jvnc.net).
"Special Issue: Communications, Computers and Networks: How
to Work, Play and Thrive in Cyberspace." Scientific
American. September 1991 (415 Madison Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10017).
* FYI -- Order Computer Books By E-Mail *
A partial listing of computer book vendors who provide e-mail book
ordering is available via LISTSERV from the archive
listserv@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu as the file EMAIL BOOKS. This document
will also be available as the file email.books FTP to the node
borg.lib.vt.edu in the /pub/vpiej-l/ directory.
The University of Nebraska maintains a Telnet accessible onilne
catalog of over 1700 books, most of which have abstracts
available. This database can be searched by author or title. Very
soon there will be hundreds of such online catalogs on the Net.
Keep your credit card by your computer!
Access: telnet crcvms.un1.edu
Login: info and select University Press
Contact: Michael Jensen jensen@unlinfo.unl.edu
* Hypertext Guides to the Net
These guides are actually simple to use hypertext programs that
can be loaded on your computer's hard drive (the place where you
keep all your software and files) and accessed while online for
instant information and directions. These programs must be
downloaded as binary files and unzipped with a utility such as
PKUNZIP. They are highly recommended for both beginner and
intermediate networkers.
Catalist
Catalist is a network guide that requires MicroSoft Windows 3.0
(or higher) to run. You will need to retrieve the files cat10.exe
fullcat.exe readme.txt via FTP from zebra.acs.udel.edu in the
/pub/library/ directory. The creator of Catalist is Richard Duggan
(duggan@brahms.udel.edu or fca02040@udelvm).
A Cruise of the Internet
The Merit Network, Cruise of the Internet, is a tutorial for new
as well as experienced Internet users. Cruise of the Internet will
introduce you to a wide variety of Internet resources and will
also provide information about the tools needed to access those
resources. There is a Macintosh and an IBM/DOS version of this
guide. For complete information, retrieve the files
merit.cruise2.mac.readme merit.cruise2.win.readme via FTP from
zebra.acs.udel.edu in the /pub/library/ directory. Contact
cruise2feedback@merit.edu.
Hytelnet
Hytelnet is a memory resident utility (IBM/DOS) that provides
instant information on all Internet-accessible library catalogues,
Free-Nets, Campus Wide Information Servers, Gophers, Wide Area
Information Servers (WAIS), and much more. This program, written
by Peter Scott, (scott@sklib.usask.ca), is highly recommended for
the new and intermediate networker. It is available via FTP from
the node access.usask.ca in the /pub/hytelnet/pc/ directory as the
file hytelnxx.zip where xx is the number of the latest version.
This program has been archived using a ZIP utility. To unarchive
it, you must have a UNZIP utility. If you do not have such a
utility, one can be retrieved from the same directory as above
with the command,
get pkunzip.exe
Note: The unzipped files total over 600,000 bytes. It is possible
to edit out any information that is not needed once the program is
unzipped. Once you have the program on your personal computer,
create a directory called HYTELNET (mkdir c:\hytelnet) and copy
the program and the unzip utility to that directory. Then enter
pkunzip hytelnxx (where xx is the number of the version you
retrieved). This will unarchive two files, hytelnxx.zip and
READNOW.!!!. Read the file READNOW.!!! for detailed insrtuctions
for unarchiving. The program may now be unarchived with the
command pkunzip -d hytelnxx (the -d parameter is essential to
create all zipped subdirectories. To use Hytelnet, refer to the
instructions included with the program.
For more information on the Hytelnet program, retrieve the
LISTSERV document, Using Hytelnet to Access Internet Resources
(Peter Scott, 1992), by sending the command GET SCOTT PRV3N4 to
listserv@uhupvm1 or listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu.
* Reading Hytelnet Via Telnet While Online *
There is a UNIX and VMS version of Hytelnet that is available for
browsing by Telnet. This Telnet version is well worth exploring
and saves the new user the trouble of FTPing, copying to a
personal computer, unzipping and installing the program. Internet
users can explore the online HYTELNET as follows:
Telnet to access.usask.ca
Login as hytelnet (lower case)
If you have access to Telnet, check this out and use it to impress
your friends.
* List for Hytelnet Updates
Peter Scott maintains a mailing list that posts updates to the
HYTELNET program. To subscribe, send an e-mail request to join the
list to Peter Scott (scott@sklib.usask.ca).
InfoPop
InfoPop is a pop-up hypertext (Terminate and Stay Resident) guide
to the Internet - BITNET - CompuServe - BBS systems - and more. A
swappable TSR, InfoPop occupies only 9K of RAM when inactive. TSR
version offers mouse support and ability to cut and paste
information to your underlying application (e.g., your comm
program or Telnet). A non-TSR version is also included. Release
2.4 adds support for running the non-resident version under
Microsoft Windows 3.1 -- with full mouse support. Also included
with InfoPop is MakeInfo - a utility that enables you to create
your own pop-up hypertext systems. InfoPop is FREEWARE from
GMUtant Software. The distribution database has had a few changes
made and several new telnet addresses added. InfoPop can be
retrieved as the file INFPOP24.ZIP via FTP from the node
gmuvax2.gmu.edu in the /library/ directory. InfoPop was created by
Wally Grotophorst (wallyg%fen1.gmu.edu@gmuvax2.gmu.edu).
Tour of the Internet
Tour of the Internet can be retrieved as the file
Internet-Tour4.0.2.sit.hqx via FTP from the node nnsc.nsf.net in
the /internet-tour/ directory. See the file Internet-Tour-README
for retrieval and installation instructions. The NSF Network
Service Center (NNSC), a project of the Laboratories business unit
of the Systems and Technologies Division, has developed a Tour of
the Internet in HyperCard (TM) format for novice network users.
The stack has basic information including history, sample e-mail,
FTP, and Telnet sessions, and a glossary. The Tour is intended to
be a fun and easy way to learn about the Internet.
Tour of the Internet is a HyperCard (TM) 2 stack for Macintosh
computers. In order to run this stack, you need to have HyperCard
2. HyperCard 2 requires Macintosh system 6.0.5 or higher. Tour of
the Internet files have been compressed and saved as a StuffIt
1.5.1 archive, and converted to binhex format. In order to use the
files, you need to reverse the process. To do this, you need the
Macintosh application StuffIt 1.5.1 or StuffIt Classic. The files
take up about 760k when converted to their original format.
* FYI -- World Systems Archive *
Located at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the purpose of
this archive is to store announcements, documents, scholarly
papers, course syllabi, data, book reviews, biographical and
publications information relevant to those who are interested in
doing research on world-systems. Files can be sent to the archive
by FTPing them directly to the archive or by sending diskettes or
e-mail to the coordinators (below).
Access:
FTP to csf.colorado.edu
Directory /wsystems/
Contact:
Chris Chase-Dunn and Peter Grimes,
Department of Sociology,
John Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD. 21218 USA
chriscd@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu
p34d3611@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu
* FYI -- Network Information Services Announcements List *
CERFnet has announced the establishment of a new mailing list to
serve network information service providers and end users. In a
nutshell, the nis@cerf.net list will be a group effort (in true
Internet style) to concentrate network information services (nis)
announcements onto one list for everyone's use. A few dozen
individuals around the Internet will each be monitoring a specific
source (such as mailing lists or newsgroups) and sending the
information to CERFnet. We will serve as the moderator, forwarding
pertinent submissions to the entire readership of the list,
omitting duplicates.
In this way, individuals can receive regular network information
even if they choose not to read discussion lists. This should
prove especially valuable for end users in specific disciplines
who are not in the networking business, but are using the network
as tool and a resource.
Advantages:
* volume will stay low (it won't be a discussion list)
* pointers will be provided for more info and
discussion
* everyone doesn't have to read every mailing list to
stay current
What you can do:
To subscribe: send mail to listserv@cerf.net with the
following command in the body of message:
subscribe your mailing address nis
(Note the difference in format from other LISTSERV
servers)
* to volunteer to monitor a source: send mail to
nis@cerf.net
* to submit an item of interest for the list to the
moderator, comments, suggestions, helpful hints, and
so on, send mail to nis@cerf.net
Contact:
Susan Calcari
CERFnet
calcaris@cerf.net
* A Note to Moderators, Authors and Maintainers of Networked
Documents *
I suggest that to facilitate networked research, listowners, FTP
archive maintainers and authors inform me when a new document of
relevance to Religious Studies is placed on a fileserver. This
cooperation will ensure that I am able to maintain an updated
directory for the research community.
It is also recommended that all listowners allow for anonymous
(non-list member) access to their LISTSERV filelists. Researchers
should not have to become a member of a discussion group to
retrieve archived documents of general interest.
Networked texts should be made available via both FTP and
LISTSERV, so as to ensure that all systems have access to the
archived material. Whenever possible, texts that have been zipped
or compressed should also be available as a straight low ASCII
file. Many network users are unable to either unzip (.zip) or
uncompress (.Z) files, and many sites do not have FTP capability.
Archives should provide an non-profit service that will mail
networked files on a diskette to users without full access. These
recommendations will ensure that the Net is as user-friendly as
possible.
Finally, I also recommend that the following information be placed
on each electronic file to facilitate citation and retrieval:
LISTSERV Filename
Location (LISTSERV Address)
FTP Filename
FTP Location (including directory)
Author's Address
Date of Publication (electronic or otherwise)
* FYI -- Star Trek Archive *
This FTP archive contains all kinds of Star Trek files, including
Postscript pictures of the Enterprise, graphic files, quotes from
the series, and other Star Trek trivia. This archive does not
contain new material, but is a collection of other material from
throughout the Net, gathered together for one-stop-ftping. See the
directory /pub/TV/ for TV episode guides. Access: FTP to
coe.montana.edu directory: /pub/STARTREK/
__________________________________________________________________
* Network Accessible Documents *
__________________________________________________________________
* Read Me, Alice *
The Net is a fast growing and dynamic environment,
which makes documenting existing resources a ongoing
process. All documented resources, archives, and tools
were verified before being entered in this guide, but
this does not mean that they will still work or be
available next week or next year. If you have trouble
accessing a resource, please make use of the contact
address provided (if available) and, failing this, try
querying help-net@templevm or help-net@vm.temple.edu.
I am not always free to directly answer every query
that comes to my e-mail box and therefore encourage
readers to make use of available Net help forums when
a problem arises. See the section Getting Help (Volume
Two) for more on how to get more information about the
Net.
__________________________________________________________________
* 1. Anthropology *
__________________________________________________________________
With the growth of multi-disciplinary studies and the social
scientific study of religion, the discipline of anthropology is
becoming increasingly important to the study of religion.
Anthropology papers and bibliographies can be found at the
following FTP archives:
* ANTHAP-L Archives
A fast growing collection of high quality material
from the Applied Anthropology Computer Network serving
members of the Society for Applied Anthropology and
the National Association for the Practice of
Anthropology.
Location: vela.acs.oakland.edu
Directory: /pub/anthap/
Contact: James Dow
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
dow@vela.acs.oakland.edu
* The Electronic Buddhist Archives
The Electronic Buddhist Archives are designed to act
as a world-wide repository of computer files with
documents and materials of relevance to practitioners
as well as students and researchers of Buddhism,
Taoism and other eastern religions.
Location: wuarchive.wustl.edu
Directory:
/doc/coombspapers/otherwork/electronic-buddhist-archives/
Contact: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek,
or
Mr Dave Ritchie,
Coombspapers Administrators,
Coombs Computing Unit, RSPacS/RSSS,
Australian National University, Canberra,
Australia
coombspapers@coombs.anu.edu.au
See also the sections, Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data
Bank, and the Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive, in the
Electric Mystic's Guide, Volume Two. Consult Diane Kovac's
Directory of Scholarly Electronic Conferences for a complete
listing of anthropology related online conferences (see Volume Two
for retrieval information).
* The ANTHRO Gopher Phone Book
An experimental service for finding the names, mail
addresses, and e-mail addresses of scholars and
departments in the field of anthropology (including
archaeology and other related fields).
Access:
Internet users on a UNIX machine can access by the
command gopher uniwa.uwa.edu.au 70 (gopher server at
the University of Western Australia). Select the UWA -
Departmental Gophers entry then select Division of
Arts & Architecture then select Anthropology &
Archaeology (worldwide) address list and you will be
presented with the listings for the ANTHRO Directory.
The ANTHRO gopher phone book can be access with the
command gopher toto.ycc.yale.edu 7000 (gopher service
at Yale University). Select Archaeology Academics ,
Name-address lists, and searching.
Contact:
anthro-gopher@yale.edu
or Dave Rindos
d_rindos@fennel.wt.uwa.edu.au
* The Anthropology Information Distribution System
The Anthropology information distribution system is
located at Yale University. It is hoped that
anthropologist's and archaeologists from around the
Internet will use this server as a mechanism to
distribute/share information including abstracts,
department information, and so on. To submit articles,
just send e-mail to Tom Plunkett at
tom_plunkett@yale.edu.
Access:
Internet users can access with the command gopher
toto.ycc.yale.edu 7000
Contact:
Tom Plunkett
tom_plunkett@yale.edu
__________________________________________________________________
* 2. Articles and Prepublication Papers *
__________________________________________________________________
Perhaps the most significant feature of the global academic
computer network is its emerging role as a prepublication forum.
Scholars are now able to place a draft copy of a document on the
fileserver of an online academic conference, such as ELENCHUS,
IOUDAIOS, or RELIGION, and ask interested online colleagues to
retrieve the draft document from the fileserver. This allows the
writer to quickly receive comments and suggestions from colleagues
in related fields around the globe. A growing number of the papers
documented below have subsequently been published in journals.
Networked FTP and LISTSERV fileservers also make it possible for
conference papers to be made widely available prior to the actual
conference. In light of the present crisis in serials pricing and
with the growing inability of academic presses to publish all
academic papers and manuscripts, the Net w | | |
