4
Advanced Navigation
Using Specific URLs, FTP, Gopher, and Newsgroups
In this chapter you will learn:
t	How to access a URL by typing its name instead of clicking on a hypertext link.
t	How URLs are constructed.
t	How to search for information on the Internet.
t	How to access FTP and Gopher sites.
t	How to read and post messages to Newsgroups.
t	How Quarterdeck Mosaic supports SSL security.
Accessing URLs Directly By Name
You probably began your exploration of the Internet by using the Hotlists included with Quarterdeck Mosaic and by following links to other sites.  Suppose, however, you are reading a newspaper or magazine and come across a reference to a Web site that sounds interesting.  Can you get there without jumping from link to link?  Of course you can!  
When you travel to a strange city, you do not need to know the layout of the city to get where you want to go.  You simply flag down a taxi and give the driver the address.  With Quarterdeck Mosaic, you can navigate just as easily to any location if you know its "address" (or URL, Uniform Resource Locator). 
1	Select Go To on the Toolbar or the Navigation menu or Open from the File menu.  
(If you currently have an open browser window on the desktop and the URL field is displayed, you can just click in the URL field, type in the URL, and press Enter.)
The Go To URL or Open URL dialog box appears.
 
Figure 10: Go To URL Dialog Box
2	Specify whether the document should open in a new window or replace the contents of the current window.  By default, the new document replaces the current document, if one exists.
If the URL refers to a document on your local hard drive or a drive accessible to you over a local area network, you can use the Browse button to search for it.  When you click the Browse button, a standard Windows browse box is displayed.
3	Type the URL in the field above Uniform Resource Locator, then click OK.
Quarterdeck Mosaic now takes you directly to the address you specified.

Some "secure" sites require that you have an access account. If you try to connect to a site that use the Basic Authentication security scheme to control access, a User Authentication Required dialog box will display. You must provide your pre-established username and password to gain access to the site.
The URL Helper 
You can use the URL Helper to construct a "legal" (syntactically correct) URL. (Note that the URL Helper does not verify that the address you enter is a valid one, only that the URL's syntax is correct.) The Go To URL and Open URL dialog boxes include a URL Helper button. Each browser window also includes the button, unless you have disabled it through the Preferences Notebook.

Figure 11: URL Helper Dialog Box
To create a URL using the URL Helper follow these steps:
1	Click the URL Helper button.
The URL Helper dialog box appears.
2	Select the appropriate protocol from the list entitled Scheme.

A remote system can use one of several schemes, or protocols, to communicate with other machines. Quarterdeck Mosaic must use the same protocol when transferring information to and from the remote system. When you select a protocol by clicking on its radio button, the scheme name and some required punctuation are inserted into the URL field. Once you select a protocol, the other fields on the dialog box change to reflect the additional information needed to complete the URL. 
3	Fill in the other fields that appear on the dialog box.
As you enter text in each field, it is added to the URL field.
4	After entering all the necessary data, click OK.   

You can only use the WAIS protocol if you are connecting to the Internet via a Proxy that supports WAIS. Also, Telnet is only available if you purchased Quarterdeck's InternetSuite and elected, during installation, to install QTerm, Quarterdeck's Telnet program. 
Understanding URLs 
Because there are times when you need to tell Quarterdeck Mosaic the exact address (URL) of a document you want to view or a site you want to visit, you should understand the components that make up a typical URL.
URLs include the "scheme" used to access the site, the name of the host computer, and the name of the document to be displayed.  Below is a typical URL:
	http://biomed.nus.sg/MOE/sch/news1.html
In this example, the scheme is `http', the host computer is `biomed.nus.sg', and the document name is  `/MOE/sch/news1.html.' 
Many URLs include only the scheme and the name of the remote server, followed by a slash. (Note that URLs require forward slashes, not backslashes.)  When you access such a site, you are presented with a document that has been configured by that system's "WebMaster" (or System Administrator) as a base document or Home Page. The following URL takes you to the Home Page of Quarterdeck's WWW site (which, in addition to providing information about the latest Quarterdeck products, contains links to rich databases of information available on computer systems around the world):  
	http://www.qdeck.com/
Relative vs. Fully Qualified URLs
The author of an HTML document can enter URLs into a document in one of two ways.  The author might include the scheme, host name, and file name; this is called a fully qualified URL.  Or he or she might create documents embedded with relative URLs.   A relative URL includes only a filename or, in some cases, a directory and filename.  When a user clicks on such a URL, the server software searches for the document based on the location of the base document.
If the Webmaster of www.qdeck.com used relative URLs, you might come across the following in a Quarterdeck HTML document:
Here is a plain text document.
Here is a hypertext document.
Here is a GIF image.
Here is an audio clip.
When viewing the source of the document, you would see this:
Here is a <A HREF = "basic.txt">plain text document</A><P>
Here is a <A HREF = "basic.htm">hypertext document</A><P>
Here is a <A HREF = "images/prism-sm.gif">GIF image</A><P>
Here is an <A HREF = "ring.au">audio clip</A><P>
If you are online and viewing a remote document, it does not matter whether the author uses fully qualified URLs or relative URLs.  It only becomes an issue if you save a document to your local system. 
When saving a document to disk, you must select a file type.  Quarterdeck Mosaic offers you three choices:  
t	As Is
t	HTML with Base
t	Plain Text 
When you select As Is, the document is saved with its HTML codes, but without information about the location of the base document. If you then load the saved document into Quarterdeck Mosaic and click one of its links, Quarterdeck Mosaic will be unable to access that URL if the author used relative URLs, because the scheme and host information is not included.  By saving a document as HTML with Base, however, Quarterdeck Mosaic saves the base information that will allow you to navigate back to links contained in the document, even when the document is located on your drive. When you select Plain Text as the file type, only the text of the document is saved.  Without its HTML codes, you will be unable to access links in the document regardless of whether the author used relative or fully qualified URLs.
Local URLs
To load documents that reside on your local hard drive or drives that are accessible to you via a local area network, select the scheme "file", then enter the complete path and filename of the document you wish to view.  Quarterdeck Mosaic automatically adds the necessary scheme and host information to the name of the document to create a legal URL.  
For example, if you wanted to load a file called TESTING.HTM from a directory called DOCS on drive C:, you could either use the Browse button to select the file or enter the following in the Filename field of the URL Helper dialog box, using either upper or lower case:
C:\DOCS\TESTING.HTM
Quarterdeck Mosaic's URL Helper would then create the following URL:
	file://localhost/c|/docs/testing.htm
HTML documents that reside on DOS systems normally use the extension .htm while UNIX systems, which allow longer filenames, usually use the extension .html. There is one other very important difference between URLs on DOS and UNIX systems. Unlike DOS, UNIX is case-sensitive. On a DOS system, myhome.htm and MYHOME.HTM refer to the same document. Not so in UNIX. Because most of the sites you will visit on the Internet exist on UNIX machines, make sure you get in the habit of typing URLs with the necessary mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters. (The scheme portion of the URL  the characters that precede ://  should always be lowercase.) 
Searching the Web
An incredible amount of information is available on the Web, but that information will do you no good if you do not know where to find it.  Fortunately, there are many tools available to help you.  In fact, several search engines are accessible directly from the Quarterdeck Web site.
To utilize these search engines:
1	Click Go To on the Toolbar.
The Go To URL dialog box appears.
2	Enter the following URL:
http://www.qdeck.com/cusi.html
3	Follow the on-screen directions to access the systems. 

The information in this section was accurate at the time our manual went to press.  Because the Web is constantly changing, the document you actually see online may differ from what you see below.

Figure 12: Page Of Search Tools At Quarterdeck's Web Site
FTP and Gopher
FTP and Gopher are popular, easy-to-use tools for navigating the Internet.  Both access methods, when used in Quarterdeck Mosaic, use a menu-driven system to move through hypertext links, allowing you to access data without the use of cryptic commands.  
As you move about on the Internet you will encounter links that jump to FTP and Gopher sites. Because the capability to access such sites is seamlessly integrated into Quarterdeck Mosaic, you need not be concerned with the fact that you are using FTP or Gopher. If you learn of a particular FTP or Gopher site that you wish to visit, you can access it by using the URL Helper and typing in the appropriate information. 

Figure 13: Gopher Menu As Displayed In Mosaic 

Quarterdeck Mosaic's FTP allows one-way transfers only. You can download from but not upload to remote sites.  A full-featured FTP program utilizing a graphical user interface is available as part of Quarterdeck InternetSuite. If you purchased InternetSuite, this manual contains a section on QFTP.
Newsgroups
Newsgroups are online bulletin boards.  Anyone with access to the Internet can read and post messages (called articles) to any newsgroup carried by his or her provider.  Currently, over ten thousand newsgroups exist, and most service providers make several thousand of those available to their customers.  Most, but not all, newsgroups are part of a loosely-defined network called USENET.
So what do people talk about on newsgroups?  Anything and everything!  
You will, of course, find many groups dealing with computer-related subjects.  Look for groups that begin with comp, such as comp.os.ms-windows (Computers/Operating Systems/Microsoft Windows) or comp.os.msdos.desqview (Computers/Operating Systems/MS-DOS/DESQview).  Some groups are regional, with the name identifying the area involved, such as la.news or houston.general.  For recreational topics, check out groups beginning with rec, such as rec.skating or rec.food.restaurants. 
A large percentage of newsgroups fall into the alt (or alternative) category, where you will find discussions on television shows, entertainers, current events, technical advances, religion, and ecology, to name just a few subjects.  You should be aware, however, that many newsgroups, particularly in the alt category, deal with adult topics and are completely unmoderated.  If you are offended by adult material or have children who are allowed to access the Internet, keep in mind that some newsgroups may not be to your liking or appropriate for younger readers.
Reading Newsgroup Articles
You can use Quarterdeck Mosaic to access newsgroups available through your Internet Service Provider.

If you have Quarterdeck InternetSuite, we suggest you use QMC (Quarterdeck Message Center) to access newsgroups. If you purchased InternetSuite, this manual contains a section on QMC.
Quarterdeck Mosaic allows you to access newsgroups just as you access other documents on the Web: by typing in the appropriate URL. First, however, you must tell Quarterdeck Mosaic the name of your news server. This information is specified in the NNTP Server field on the Mail/News page in Location Manager. (Many NNTP servers have names with "news." followed by the domain name, such as news.provider.com or news.provider.net.)
To configure Location Manager, select Configure Network from the Tools menu. Help is available from any screen by clicking Help or pressing F1. If you need additional assistance with any field, ask your Network Administrator or Internet service provider.
To access any of the newsgroups available through your provider:
1	Select Go To from the Toolbar or Navigate menu.
The Go To URL dialog box appears.
2	Type news:* and click OK.
A list of available newsgroups will be displayed in a browser window. Depending on the speed of your connection, it may take several minutes or longer for the entire list to appear.

Figure 14: Newsgroups Viewed In A Browser Window
3	Once you have retrieved a list of newsgroups you can see a list of the most recent messages posted to any group by clicking on its name.
4	Click any message to read it.

The command news:* in step 2 instructs the program to retrieve a list of all groups. If you prefer, you can obtain a list of groups in a specific category by typing a prefix followed by an asterisk such as news:comp.* or news:alt.*. The first command would retrieve the names of all newsgroups beginning with comp. and the second would retrieve the names of all alt. groups. If you know the name of a specific newsgroup, you can retrieve it by typing its name, such as news:alt.music.james-taylor. Any hypertext link to a newsgroup can be saved to a Hotlist using the techniques described in "Saving URLs to Hotlists" on page 29.
Responding to Newsgroup Articles
In addition to reading messages posted by others, Quarterdeck Mosaic lets you respond to them.  You can post a public response to a message that can be read by anyone with access to the newsgroup or send a private response to the author of a message.
To post a public message on a new subject:
1	While viewing a list of newsgroup articles, click on Post to Newsgroup at the top of the list.
A document entitled Post: is displayed with the name of the newsgroup, your name, and the time and date filled in.
2	Enter an appropriate subject in the Subject field, then enter the body of your message in the Text field.
3	When you are ready to send the message, click on Post It.
The message is sent off and posted to the newsgroup.
At any time prior to posting the message, you click on Reset Fields to remove the text you have entered from the Subject and Text fields.
To post a public response to an individual message:
 u 	Click on Post Follow Up, then follow steps 2 and 3 above.
To send a private reply to the author of a message:
 u 	Click on Reply to [author's name], then follow steps 2 and 3 above.
Sending E-mail Messages
When you post a private reply to the author of a newsgroup as described above, you are using the Internet protocol mailto:. You can use this protocol to send an e-mail message to anyone with an Internet address. Quarterdeck Mosaic cannot retrieve and display e-mail messages that are sent to you. It can only send e-mail. In most cases, you will want to use a full-featured mail and news reader such as Quarterdeck Message Center (available as part of Quarterdeck InternetSuite). You may, however, find it convenient to send an occasional e-mail message while working in Quarterdeck Mosaic.
Before you attempt to send e-mail from Quarterdeck Mosaic, make sure that you have configured the Mail/News page of Location Manager with the appropriate mail server (SMTP Server) and your personal e-mail address.  If you are not sure what to enter in these fields, check with your System Administrator or Service Provider.

If you have Quarterdeck InternetSuite, we suggest you use QMC (Quarterdeck Message Center) to send e-mail. If you purchased InternetSuite, the manual contains a section on QMC.
To send an e-mail message:
1	Select Go To on the Toolbar or Navigate menu, then click the URL Helper button on the Go To dialog box that appears.
2	Click the radio button labeled mailto under Scheme, then enter the e-mail address of the person you are writing to and click OK.
The Go To dialog box is again visible.
3	Click OK.
A document entitled Mail: is displayed with the To, From, and Date fields filled in.
4	Enter an appropriate subject in the Subject field and enter the body of your message in the Text field.
5	When you are ready to send your message, click on Mail It.
SSL Security
Quarterdeck Mosaic supports the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol, which can provide privacy for your communications on the Internet. Some Web servers take advantage of SSL to provide security for important documents and transactions. When dealing with these documents or transactions, Quarterdeck Mosaic will display a dialog box informing you about the security issue involved. Also, when you are accessing a secured site, the Quarterdeck Mosaic display changes slightly.
SSL was developed by Netscape Communications, Inc. Full documentation of SSL is available from Netscape at: http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/SSL.html.
Security Dialog Boxes
Unless disabled, dialog boxes display in the following circumstances to alert you to an SSL security issue:
t	When you are accessing an area secured by SSL encryption.
t	When you are leaving an area secured by SSL encryption.
t	When you are sending an unsecured form.
t	When a document that is to be displayed contains a mix of secured and unsecured information.
t	When the document that is to be displayed will be retrieved using an export cipher.
Each security issue has its own dialog box.
Each dialog box describes the relevant security issue and gives you the chance to disable this same dialog box for the current Quarterdeck Mosaic session. (If you wish to disable the dialog box for all Quarterdeck Mosaic sessions, you can do so using the Security Preferences tab.)
Security Display Changes
When a page that is displaying in Quarterdeck Mosaic is secured by SSL encryption, it looks different from other pages in two ways:
t	A blue border is displayed around the entire page.
t	A graphic of a combination lock displays on the left side of the URL field.

If you hide the URL field using the Browser Preferences tab, then the graphic of the lock will not be displayed; the blue border around the page will continue to be displayed.
