


                           NetScout User's Manual


                              Minuteman Systems
                            Copyright 1995, 1996


        NetScout is an off-line tool that browses several standard
        Internet resource lists, covering tens of thousands of
        subjects. The ability to search these wide-ranging lists off-
        line with a single tool allows you to conduct a
        comprehensive search quickly, and eliminate many on-line
        usage charges.

        This program is provided for your free evaluation for up to
        ten days. If you decide to keep it beyond that  period, you
        must purchase a permanent copy. Ordering information is
        provided at the end of this document.


        Table Of Contents
        -----------------
        Chapter 1 - Introduction
        Chapter 2 - What Is The Internet?
          2.1 Commercial Services are Single-Computer Systems
          2.2 The Internet Is a Network of Networks
          2.3 Who and What Are On The Internet
        Chapter 3 - What Functions are Available On The Internet?
          3.1 Some Internet Naming Conventions
          3.2 File Transfer Protocol - FTP
          3.3 Gopher
          3.4 Newsgroups
          3.5 MailLists
          3.6 The World Wide Web
        Chapter 4 -  Accessing The Internet From The Major OnLine Data Services
          4.1 America OnLine
          4.2 CompuServe
        Chapter 5 - Accessing The Internet From Internet Access Providers
          5.1 Basic-Service Providers
          5.2 Advanced-Service Providers
          5.3 A Low-cost Alternative - Free-nets
        Chapter 6 - Using NetScout
        Chapter 7 -  Library Lists Available With NetScout
        Chapter 8 - Ordering Information
'


        Chapter 1 - Introduction

        The Internet can be a boundless source of information on
        topics ranging over the entire spectrum from recreational to
        technical subjects. Since there is so much information out
        there, finding the particular items you are interested in
        can be time-consuming and expensive.

        This document will provide information on how to use the
        NetScout, a list browser,  to rapidly locate information on
        the Internet. Since NetScout operates off-line using
        standard and easily available index lists, you avoid the
        expense of operating on-line. Your local search proceeds
        faster than would occur over telephone or other dial-in
        lines.

        NetScout can search standard lists of the following types of
        Internet resources;

        - Newsgroups
        - MailLists
        - FTP sites  (file archives)
        - frequently-asked-questions lists (FAQs)

        After determining off-line the specific resources you need
        from the above lists, you can then go back on-line to your
        Internet Service Provider and directly access the desired
        resources.

        If you're an experienced Internet user and are familiar with
        these terms, you may wish to proceed directly to chapters 6
        and 7 which give detailed instructions on conducting
        searches with NetScout.

        If you are relatively new to the Internet, or perhaps a new
        member of  CompuServe or America OnLine, chapters 2 through
        5 provide tutorial information on the nature and
        capabilities of the Internet, and how to access it.

        This program is provided for your free evaluation for up to
        ten days. If you decide to keep it beyond that  period, you
        must purchase a permanent copy. Ordering information is
        provided at the end of this document. When you purchase a
        copy of the program, you will have an option to obtain a full
        and up-to-date version of each of the resource lists that
        NetScout works with.

'



        Chapter 2 - What Is The Internet?


        The majority of this tutorial will be written from the
        perspective of someone using one of the major on-line data
        services such as America OnLine or CompuServe.


        2.1 Commercial Services are Single-Computer Systems

        If you have an account on one of these, you are used to
        using a computer and modem, with a graphical interface
        package, to dial into the service's system.  These major
        systems are each basically a single large computer system
        (possibly using redundant machines) which you are accessing
        via a nation-wide or world-wide telephone system.

        For example, America Online's computer system is located in
        Vienna, VA. and is illustrated below. AOL's system consists
        of 9 Stratus Inc. fault-tolerant computers. A fault-tolerant
        computer is one which can keep running, without loss of
        computation or loss of data, even when certain elements
        fail.

        America OnLine uses Sprintnet to provide telephone service.
        When you dial AOL in, say, Pittsburgh, you're really dialing
        a number AOL is buying from Sprintnet in Pittsburgh.
        Sprintnet routes the call through their system from
        Pittsburgh to their Vienna, VA office and then into AOL
        headquarters.

        Services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and others have a similar
        structure. The important thing is that each service consists
        of one centralized computer system that you are using.
'


        2.2 The Internet Is a Network of Networks


        The Internet, on the other hand, is actually a network of
        multiple computers.

        The Internet grew out of an  projected called  The ARPANET
        in the late 1960's. The project was to develop a Wide-Area-
        Network, or WAN, to link together numerous remote sites
        involved in government-sponsored research. It was very
        successful and started growing. It's use spread to non-
        restricted utilizations.

        A technical strength of the Internet is that it uses one
        communication-protocol TCP/IP as a standard for
        communication between all sites. This means that a wide
        variety of computer architectures and media can work
        together, because they all share the same "language".

        Numerous networks like the ARPANET were formed and
        interconnected. Collectively, this "Network of Networks" is
        called the Internet.  As of the Fall of 1995, the Internet
        consisted of over 5,000 networks. One "Network" on the
        Internet could consist of a single computer, or thousands of
        computers on one company's network. (Digital Equipment
        Corporation has something like 40,000 nodes on its one
        network). Given that many computers are mini- or main-frame
        computers that may have hundreds or even thousands of user
        accounts, the total number of Internet user accounts can be
        seen to be in the millions.

        Incidentally, the ARPANET itself was dismantled in the early
        90's.
'

        2.3 Who and What Are On The Internet

        The Internet is often drawn schematically as a "cloud" with
        individual networks connecting into the cloud. Anyone on a
        network connected into the cloud can utilize various
        services to communicate with other networks. It's not
        important (for us right now) what goes on inside the cloud -
        its just important that any points connected into it can
        communicate.

        Some comments about specific types of networks connected
        into the Internet.

        1.OnLine Services - The major services like CompuServe and
          Prodigy all have a point of interconnection to the
          Internet. They typically have made use of only a subset
          of the wide range of Internet services available. That's
          changing - they are all rapidly moving to support all
          Internet capabilities.

        2.Individual Companies - If you work for a company of (ball-
          park) 500 or more employees, your company may be have a
          connection from their internal network to the Internet.
          (They cost from $5000/yr up to perhaps $100,000 per year,
          depending on the rate of traffic supported and the range
          of services subscribed to.) This means you may be able to
          access some Internet services from a PC or Mac on your
          desk.

        3.Educational or Research Institutes - A large number of
          these are on the Internet, in fact as stated above they
          were the "core" of the start of the Internet. These
          organizations are still a large part of the Internet
          member community, and besides their private materials
          have a large amount of tools of interest to the network
          community. NASA has a large amount of public information
          and pictures about space activities. CERN, the European
          center for Nuclear Research in the  Swiss/French border,
          is the founding organization of "the World Wide Web" -
          the current standard tool for wide-area document
          searching.

        4.Local Access Providers - Increasingly, companies are
          being set up whose main service is to provide individuals
          inexpensive access to the Internet. These companies have
          a mini-computer, and a number of dial-in lines.
          Individuals can call up and register for accounts at a
          relatively low price (such as $5 per month plus $2 per
          hour of connect time.) When you dial in with a PC using a
          terminal-emulator communication program, such as PROCOMM,
          you have access to a full range of services on the
          Internet, and you're also allocated some reasonable
          amount of storage (1-2 Megabytes) on their system for
          moving files.

        5.Local BBSs - Many small-time Bulletin Board Systems, are
          increasingly buying an Internet connection. Magazines
          like Boardwatch and BBS Magazine usually have lists of
          BBSs that have Internet connections. If you join such a
          BBS in your area, you can use it to access the Internet.
          It also means you can log onto other Internet-accessible
          BBSs without having to dial over long-distance land-
          lines. There's virtually no "telephone charge" involved.
          (However, some may charge a membership fee)
'



        Chapter 3 - What Functions are Available On The Internet?

        The main point of the preceding chapter was that the
        Internet consists of a large number of Computers, owned by a
        variety of companies and organizations, all connected
        together and able to exchange information. But what type of
        information is out there? And how does one get at it? That
        will be addressed in this chapter.


        3.1 Some Internet Naming Conventions

        Its necessary to understand  the nomenclature used on the
        Internet to name individuals and sites.
        You will use this to send mail to individuals, or to access
        sites for file transfer.

        Addresses of individuals take the general shape
        "username@organization" as below;

         president@whitehouse.gov
               bck@world.std.com
                |    |    |
                |    `------------ organization
                `----------------- user

        This "organization" is the "Internet name" for the site
        itself. The "organization" consists of several names
        separated by periods such as "oak.oakland.edu" or
        "world.std.com". The rightmost name is one of several
        broadbrush categories

        com = commercial
        edu = educational
        mil = military
        gov = government
        net = network support company
        org = other organizations

        The rest of the organization usually consists of a top-most
        name (oakland) assigned by a central naming committee. The
        organization then assigns its own sub-org names (oak) and
        user-account names. This mechanism greatly simplifies the
        naming process.

        The full "username@organization for people on the major data
        services having an Internet connection is a combination of
        their account name and their services' name. A user with
        account number 12345,6789 on CompuServe would have address
        "12345.6789@compuserve.com." User "JDoe" on America OnLine
        would be "jdoe@aol.com". Please note that each service may
        also have "local" requirements to allow you to indicate if a
        mail message you are composing is addressed to someone on
        the home system or on the Internet. Example - CompuServe
        members sending mail to each other just use the local
        account name, but any mail destined for the Internet must be
        preceded by "INTERNET:".

        The preceding description applies mostly to sending email,
        or to connecting to sites using non-graphical or "command-
        line" interfaces found on some of the less expensive
        services (more about that later). When accessing sites using
        the graphical WEB Browsers commonly found on CompuServe and
        AOL, you usually have to employ a slightly longer address
        nomenclature called a "URL" ("Universal Resource Locator").
        The format of the URL depends upon the type of function you
        are accessing.  WEB and FTP functionality will be described
        a few pages on. For now, the following example shows the
        URLs for the Web and FTP functions at Microsoft;

        WWW URL = http://www.microsoft.com/
        FTP URL = ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/

        There are other URL types for other functions such as
        "gopher" (gopher://x.y.z) but WEB and FTP functions are the
        ones most commonly used.
'

        3.2 File Transfer Protocol - FTP

        Moving or transferring files from one site to your system is
        one of the most commonly used Internet functions. FTP, for
        File Transfer protocol, is the mechanism for doing this. The
        different graphical interfaces on the major services provide
        slightly different ways to do it, but the following
        description will closely approximate all systems.

        The way to access files on a remote system is to "log on"
        using something called "anonymous FTP". This means that you
        use the FTP function on your system to specify the name of a
        site which is known to accept public access. Ordinarily that
        system will prompt you for a USERNAME: and you would enter
        "anonymous" (sometimes this is case-sensitive!). You are
        then asked to enter a  PASSWORD:, and
        the correct response is to enter your email address. You are
        then connected to the top directory structure of that remote
        system.

        If you are using a graphical interface as is now common on
        CompuServe and America OnLine, much of the above is
        automated for you. The CompuServe Spry Mosaic browser
        requires that you input a full URL, but then it invisibly
        enters the username password. The remote systems directory
        structure is presented to you looking much like a drive
        would under Windows' File manager. You can click/browse
        through the remote systems file. There is even a "file
        search" feature. When you find the file or files you want,
        you click a button to download them

        If you are using a non-graphical interface, the remote
        system looks to you much as if you were operating "at the
        DOS prompt" instead of  inside Windows.  The major, major,
        MAJOR exception is that Internet systems do not use DOS!
        They use UNIX. Write this down! To move up and down through
        the directory structure, you use a different command set.
        And to receive files off the remote system, you use "Get"
        instead of "copy" or " Move" A brief list of UNIX and FTP-
        specific commands, follows.
'


        FTP Command Summary

        ascii     set ascii transfer type
        binary    set binary transfer type
        bye       terminate FTP session and exit
        cd        change remote working directory
        cdup      change remote working directory to parent directory
        close     terminate FTP session
        cr        toggle carriage return stripping on ascii gets
        delete    delete remote file
        dir       list contents of remote directory
        get       receive file
        ls        list contents of remote directory
        mkdir     make directory on the remote machine
        open      connect to remote tftp
        put       send one file
        mdelete   delete multiple files
        mdir      list contents of multiple remote directories
        mget      get multiple files
        rmdir     remove directory on the remote machine
        send      send one file
        system    show remote system type
'

        FTP Via EMAIL

        Even if you don't have full Internet access, you may still
        be able to access much FTP functionality by sending EMAIL to
        sites. There are 2 types of approaches

        1.) Info Servers - Some FTP sites respond to EMAIL requests
        as well as direct FTP connections. In general you mail a
        message to the FTP handler-address, and it executes the
        contents of the message as if it were coming from an FTP
        connection. In the event of a "get" instruction, it then
        emails back to you the requested file.

        I said "in general" for several reasons. First, not all FTP
        sites (anonymous or otherwise) support this feature.
        Secondly, those that do support FTP via mail do not all use
        the same command set. To find out how to use a particular
        sites' FTP mail functions, you (usually) can send it a
        message with the single word "help" (lowercase) in the body,
        and it will mail back to you a file with the instructions.
        While just the word "help" often works, sometimes other
        commands are supported .

        Example - mail a message to the info-server at info-
        server@nnsc.nsf.net. The "subject" field can be anything,
        but have the body be

        request: info
        topic: help

        and you will receive a set of instructions

        A list of info-servers is available via anonymous FTP at
        host pit-manager.mit.edu at directory
        pub/usenet/news.answers. Not surprisingly, its also
        available by email-server. Send a message to mail-server@pit-
        manager.mit.edu with the command "help" in the subject
        field. (Note that this is different from other systems where
        you put "help" in the body).

        2.) ftpmail-servers  - An info-server can only send files
        from its own system. There are a limited number of  FTP-via-
        email systems which allow you to access files on any
        anonymous-FTP host. An FTP-mail-server accepts a command
        string in a message from you. It then does its own anonymous
        FTP logon to the requested host, executes the command
        string, and mails you the results.

        Send a message with the one-line body "help" to
        ftpmail@pa.dec.com or ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com to receive
        instructions for using those FTP-mail-servers. (Note that
        both are sponsored by Digital Equipment Corp - "dec")
        Important Information About Transferring Files !!!

        I cannot over-emphasize that FTP is the primary mechanism
        for moving files around the Internet.  You can move some
        files using email, but there are limitations on filetypes
        and or file-lengths. I.E. Binary files are hard to move
        reliably using mail - FTP provides guaranteed movement.

        There are a couple very basic things you need to know about,
        or be warned about, regarding the transfer of files. These
        come out of 2 basic facts;

          Binary Files May Need Different Handling Than Text Files

          FTP actually handles Binary and Text files in different
          manners. ("Binary" can mean graphics files, executable
          files, or any file that's been compressed such as with
          PKZIP.) On many systems when you do a "get" or "put" the
          resident FTP program automatically detects the type of
          the file and handles it appropriately. However, on some
          systems you have to manually set a toggle to indicate if
          you're moving a binary or text file. If you're getting
          corrupted files - try setting the file type manually.
          (i.e. enter the FTP command "binary" or "ASCII".)

          Also, many mail programs can't handle binary files at
          all. (see the fix below)

          Some parts of the Internet have limits on file size.

          Even though the receiving and transmitting hosts may deal
          perfectly well with large files, the path across the
          Internet can be quirky and you may run across a link that
          rejects or corrupts anything exceeding some size
          limitation. Some equipment rejects files greater than
          56kbytes in size.

        An Important Tool - The tool pair UUENCODE/UUDECODE is used
        to translate binary files into text files for transmission,
        and back into binary at reception. Also, they have the
        ability to take a large file and break it up into numerous
        small ones, below a size you specify, and then re-assemble
        them at reception. There are versions of these tools
        available to run on all platforms.
'


        3.3 Gopher

        GOPHER is a menu-driven search tool for finding information
        on the Internet. A typical menu is shown below;


        ============================================================
        Internet Gopher Information Client v1.13

                               Root gopher server: gopher.std.com

         -->  1.  Information About The World Public Access UNIX/
              2.  The World's ClariNews AP OnLine Newswire Index/
              3.  The World's FDCH US Congressional Committee Transcripts/
              4.  OBI The OnLine Book Initiative/
              5.  Shops on The World/
              6.  Internet and USENET Phone Books/
              7.  Commercial Services via the Internet/
              8.  Book-Sellers/
              9.  Bulletin Boards via the Internet/
              10. Consultants/
              11. FTP/
              12. Government Information/
              13. Internet Information and Resources/
              14. Libraries/
              15. Membership and Professional Associations/
              16. Metropolitan and Community News/
              17. News and Weather/
              18. Non-Profit Organizations/

        Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu
        Page: 1/2
        ============================================================
'


        Moving through the menu is quite straightforward. Just type
        the number of the menu-item you're interested in, or use
        up/down arrow to make a selection. There are a virtually
        unlimited combination of sub-menus. Many end in actual
        files, often text files, and you will be presented with
        options to copy the file to your home system.

        Note that there is almost always a top-level-menu entry that
        says something like "access other GOPHER servers". While no
        one GOPHER services knows about every file on the Internet,
        by hopping from server to server you can cover almost the
        entire Internet, but admittedly it can take a long time.

        Also note that GOPHER is somewhat "backwards compatible"
        with FTP. It has the ability to scan FTP-sites and present
        files for downloading.

        Besides perusing the menu, there is a search function. The
        "search" scans the titles in the menu tree and perhaps
        keywords, but it doesn't scan the contents of any documents
        (which wouldn't work with executable or other binary files
        anyhow.)
'


        3.4 Newsgroups

        These are postings of series of messages. They are
        "broadcast" across the whole Internet, on specific subjects.
        You call up a "news reader" program  on your Internet host
        to browse the different Newsgroups and read the entries in
        each.

        There are an incredible number of Newsgroups - thousands,
        with more being created every day. They range from new-
        service postings and financial news, to computer-
        professional information, to "recreational" and "alternative
        lifestyles".

        Some sample names

        alt.beer -discussions about beer
        rec.humor - jokes!
        comp.msdos.announce - announcements about msdos services and
         programs available.
        news.newsgroups.announce - news about new Newsgroups
        alt.answers - miscellaneous info about how to use the
        Internet

        The first word of the newsgroup name (alt, comp, etc) is a
        broad-brush category. The presently defined list is;

        alt - alternative systems
        biz - business related
        comp - computer-related
        k12 - education (kindergarten through grade 12)
        misc - miscellaneous
        rec - recreation
        sci - science
        soc - social topics
        talk - controversial subjects
'


        3.5 MailLists

        MailLists are a variant on Newsgroups. These are Mailings to
        your specific mailbox on selected topics. There are
        thousands of MailLists, and you have to subscribe to the
        ones you want. You generally send a generic message with
        "subscribe listname" or just "subscribe" in either the body
        or the "Subject:"  field to the maintainer of the MailList,
        and a program automatically enrolls you. (You may have to
        experiment.) Similarly, the MailList has an address to which
        you mail messages you want to post, and they will be
        automatically re-mailed to all members of the MailList. Some
        MailLists are "moderated" - the maintainer will censor
        messages felt to be "inappropriate" - which can mean
        illegal, immoral, or just a waste of bandwidth. Bookstores
        generally carry several books which have listings of
        MailLists, with enrollment instructions.

        Listservers are very closely related to MailLists. You
        subscribe by sending an "enrollment" message to an
        administrative address. You then receive via mail copies of
        anything posted to the listserver. Messages are posted by
        sending to a publication address, which is different from
        the enrollment address. You can execute various other
        administrative commands by sending pre-defined messages to
        the administrative address. There are many listserver lists.

        As an example, to obtain a list of listserv discussion
        groups, send a message to listserv@bitnic.bitnet. In the
        body of the message, have the single entry "list global"
        (without the quotation marks). Leave the subject field
        blank. You'll be mailed back a long file. To obtain
        instructions on other commands available, send to the same
        address a message with the body just including "INFO
        REFCARD".
'


        3.6 The World Wide Web

        The World-Wide-Web is perhaps the first mechanism to break
        the threshold of ease-of-use beyond which large numbers of
        people from varying backgrounds can find the Internet to be
        useful.

        The WEB was initially developed by CERN as a mechanism to
        view hypertext documents and provide links between multiple
        documents on multiple hosts. Technologically it has grown to
        encompass true multi-media formats. The widespread
        availability of browsers, multi-media-authoring tools, and
        the ability to create your own WEB site has resulted in a
        complementary boom in both WEB sites and WEB users. The WEB
        is expanding to include information of all types - business,
        educational, scientific, entertainment, and more.


        WEB Terminology and Operation

        The World Wide Web is known by several names ; WWW, w3, and
        "the WEB" are often  used interchangeably and all mean the
        same thing.

        Originally it went one (major) step beyond GOPHER and
        allowed a hypertext link between documents. This means that
        by selecting a "hotword" in one document, or on one screen,
        you jump to an entry point in another document. This link
        may be on the current host, or it may be to an point of
        entry, or "Home Page" on another host.

        This frees you from the rigid structure of a menu tree, and
        even more importantly allows you access into the contents of
        documents. Also, WEB sites and browsers typically have
        extensive search capabilities built into them.

        This additional freedom has some cost. Navigation can become
        harder. Even within anyone site it may be difficult to keep
        track of "where you are" and loops are frequently
        encountered. At any point you may suddenly find that you are
        now on a different site. Also, the widespread proliferation
        of WEB home pages has made it nearly impossible to
        effectively develop white- or yellow-pages.

        Still, the advantages greatly outweigh any newly acquired
        difficulties, and work continues to develop better searching
        and tracking features.

        The basic hypertext format is defined in a semi-standard
        known as "HTML" - HyperText Markup Language. This format
        goes just beyond plain-text and includes such text-
        formatting features as fonts, sizes, bold, etc. The
        formatting has also expanded to incorporate both images and
        sound. With a full-capability (i.e. multi-media) browser, as
        you navigate the WEB you are presented with not just text
        information, but accompanying images and often audio.

        The name "Mosaic" is used a lot in reference to the WEB.
        Mosaic is one of many types of WEB browsers available. It is
        one of the most comprehensive. Versions are available for
        many platforms, it supports full multi-media capability, and
        it may be download for free.

        WEB documents and browsers have exhibited fairly
        comprehensive backwards and forwards compatibility. Low-end
        text-only browsers appropriately filter out images and sound
        and make a best-effort at reformatting text. Legacy features
        such as FTP and GOPHER are generally represented quite well,
        within their given limitations.



        About addressing

        You will see the phrase "URL" employed a lot. It stands for
        "Universal Resource Locator". In simplistic terms, this
        means "addressing". WEB sites are typically identified by
        some name such as http://www.ibm.com/.  Subdirectories
        within the sites are identified by further extensions of the
        name, although you typically don't have to keep track of
        this, the WEB browser does it for you.

        The address example given is actually a subset of a more
        comprehensive naming structure. the "http" prefix identifies
        one type of resource - "ftp://" and "gopher://" prefixes are
        used to identify those types of sites.

        About Bandwidth

        Its all well and good to talk about a complete multi-media
        interface. However, the bandwidth requirements can be
        significant. Recall that bandwidth you have available to you
        depends upon your type of Internet connection. Your
        "bandwidth" may range from a low-end of 9600 bits/sec for a
        dial-up-line at to 56kbits-to-Megabits/sec if you're at a
        company with its own IP Gateway. The low-end may be all
        right for a text-only operation from at home (don't even
        think about trying to operate with a lower-speed modem).
        Graphics, audio, and motion require successively higher
        bandwidth. You can spend a lot of time sitting there
        watching the screen get updated. Most good browsers allow
        you to selectively shut off features such as graphics if
        you're finding that operation is too slow.
'


        Graphical Browsing Tools

        The "avalanche" of interest in the WEB has come about
        largely due to the widespread availability of good, multi-
        platform, graphical browsers that support text, graphics,
        and audio. Perhaps the most widely known is Mosaic, although
        a number of other good ones exist, and there are lots more
        on the way.

        Mosaic was initially developed by NCSA, the National Center
        for Supercomputing Applications. NCSA was established under
        a grant from the National Science Foundation, and Mosaic is
        available for free download. The Software Development group
        or SDG provides ongoing support of Mosaic.

        There are also a number of commercial versions of Mosaic
        available.

        Mosaic is a cross-platform tool - versions are available for
        Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, and the UNIX operating system.
        If you are operating it over a dial-up line though, please
        note that the line has to support SLIP or PPP.

        A number of commercial companies are rushing to develop
        graphical WEB browsers. Also, the Commercial OnLine Data
        Services are all working on making versions available over
        their systems. CompuServe  offers the Spry Mosaic Browse.
        This system is quite usable and makes easy WEB access
        available to a very large audience.



        Text-Based Browsers

        The earliest stages of WEB development used text-based
        browsers only. In fact the very first ones were line-at-a
        time only. LYNX was one of the first screen-mode text-based
        browsers and remains widely available on UNIX and VMS
        systems.

        If you have an account on one of the less expensive Internet
        Access providers, that only provide a command-line or text-
        based interface, LYNX may be your only available WEB
        Browser. Still, it is a pretty capable tool.

        Since LYNX is text based, many of its screen may initially
        look like GOPHER screens. As you use arrow  keys to move
        through it, you'll quickly notice that it jumps to
        highlighted words in the middle of sentences. These are the
        "hotkeys" or links to other documents and sites. Pressing CR
        or a different arrow key makes the jump. When you make a
        jump to a GOPHER site, you get a conventional GOPHER
        representation. When you make a jump to an FTP site, the
        presented screen looks a lot like a directory listing.

        Besides the navigational features, its important to note
        that at any point you can download the currently selected
        document. (This can be done by a file extract or by having
        it emailed to you at any address you select.)

'



        Chapter 4 -  Accessing The Internet From The Major OnLine
        Data Services

        A great many people access the Internet from one of the
        major on-line data services such as America OnLine or
        CompuServe. These services now offer comprehensive graphical
        interfaces to interface the majority of  Internet services.
        The following is a brief description of how to access these
        the WWW, FTP, Gopher, and Internet email on AOL and
        CompuServe.


        4.1 America OnLine

        Current versions of the AOL interface package include an
        integrated series of graphical interfaces to Internet
        services. At the Main Menu, clicking "Internet Connection"
        brings up an Internet-specific menu page. This page is also
        accessible via the Keyword "Internet". The page has separate
        icons for FTP, Gopher, Newsgroups, and the WWW. Much of the
        process of accessing sites is automated for you - you enter
        a site name, or click one from a menu, and the interface
        program handles any sign-on protocol.  There are also
        buttons for such functions as downloading files.

        There is also a separate icon for composing Internet email.
        There are plenty of informational screen to explain the
        process of composing mail, and in particular the addressing
        conventions. For example, if you know the account number of
        someone on CompuServe, you are told exactly how to construct
        their valid Internet email address.

        To make use of MailLists, you use email to compose "enroll"
        messages as previously described. Mailist postings will then
        appear in your mailbox as regular mail.

        4.2 CompuServe

        CompuServe purchased the Spry company and now offers a
        customized version of  the Mosaic WEB browser. This program
        operates as a stand-alone package separate from the WICIM or
        other CompuServe interfaces. The Spry Mosaic browser is the
        mechanism for accessing WWW pages, FTP sites, Gopher, and
        Newsgroups. (use the HELP function for details on accessing
        Newsgroups. But basically you enter Newsgroups as URLs of
        the form news:newsgroup.name)

        Sending email, and accessing mailists, is not done in the
        Spry Mosaic browser. It is performed in the main CompuServe
        environment, using for example such as WinCIM. Email is sent
        to the Internet using the prefix "INTERNET:" followed by a
        valid Internet email address.


'



        Chapter 5 - Accessing The Internet From Internet Access
        Providers

        Even if you have an account on a major online data service
        provider such as CompuServe, if you're going to be using the
        Internet a lot you may find it more cost effective to have a
        separate account at an Internet Access provider.

        There has been a mini-boom in the last several years of
        Internet Access providers. These are companies that go
        through all the work described in the preceding section, of
        setting up an Internet Gateway. Then, they rent out monthly
        accounts to anyone. Accounts are accessed via dial-in lines.
        The sophistication of these systems runs from providing
        local telephone access of a command-line interface on a
        terminal-emulation session, to a nationwide-access dial-in
        system with a graphical interface.

        There are many ways to find these providers. First, they
        advertise, both locally in newspapers and in relevant
        magazines such as Internet World. Also, there are lists
        maintained on the Internet of  Dial-In Access providers.
        (We'll skip over the chicken-and-egg situation of needing to
        get on the Internet first to get at the list.) One list is
        called PDIAL and is available at the FTP server
        rtfm.mit.edu.

        A couple systems have achieved some degree of national fame
        for the depth of their services, or the character of their
        membership. Two that come to mind are The WELL, in the San
        Francisco area, and PANIX in New York City.

        A couple new features have been appearing on many of these
        providers;

          The ability to create your own World-Wide-Web home page
          They can create a network address for you that looks like
          your own commercial business address.  Instead of being
          "username@provider_name.com" you can now be
          "username@your_businessname.com" For example, I can go
          from being "bck@world.std.com" to "bobk@minuteman.com"
          This is a real plus if you're establishing a company-
          presence.
'

        5.1 Basic-Service Providers

        This is a no-frills system wherein you get an account on the
        Providers system. You use a terminal emulator to dial in and
        are presented with a command-line interface. You are
        allocated a certain amount of storage space on the system
        for composing and or moving files. Fees are rather
        reasonable - there may be no sign-up fee, and monthly costs
        may be as low as $5 basic fee plus $2 per hour. I've heard
        there are systems as inexpensive as $20 per year.

        Very often these systems are UNIX systems. A UNIX command-
        line may appear a bit cryptic to a someone familiar with
        DOS, and downright puzzling to a business person trying to
        get their first exposure to the Internet. However, you
        really should have little difficulty learning to use at
        least the basics of a UNIX command-line system. Most systems
        have a "help" command and a UNIX command summary. There are
        also many good books around on UNIX. A very rudimentary UNIX
        command summary is provided in on the following pages.

        If I had to give one piece of advice to UNIX-neophytes it is
        ; watch out for case-sensitivity! UNIX paths and filenames
        are case sensitive, and this can cause a lot of grief until
        you get used to it.

        5.2 Advanced-Service Providers

        Many providers are trying to appeal to a wider customer-
        base. One way to do this is to offer a graphical interface
        that eliminates the complexities of both command-line
        interfaces and the Internet functions themselves. Also,
        instead of just providing a regional telephone number, some
        services are working with major telephone carriers to
        provide access-lines in major urban centers.

        The next-level-up of service providers, over the UNIX-
        command-line method, consists of  providers who offer SLIP
        and PPP protocols over their dial-in lines. This allows you
        to create what amounts to an Internet connection direct to
        your own machine. A primary use of this is to allow
        installation of the Mosaic WEB browser on your system.
        Mosaic, described later, is an advanced graphical interface
        for scanning the world-wide-web. It can offer text,
        graphics, and audio access to WEB sites.

        I should point out that there are Mosaic browsers available
        as freeware - it's not a proprietary program of the service
        provider. The provider's main job is to provide the SLIP or
        PPP connectivity.  They may or may not also make it easy for
        you to locate Mosaic and install it.

        At the top-level of functionality, some service providers do
        offer a proprietary graphical interface to overall Internet
        functions. Some are also expanding their telephone access
        and advertising on a national basis. These companies are
        beginning to merge into the same market, and level of
        service, as the "OnLine Data Service" companies such as
        CompuServe.

        Two such top-level services are The Pipeline and NETCOM On-
        Line Communications Services.

        One other service to mention is DELPHI Internet Services.
        DELPHI at one point was providing services similar to the
        OnLine Data Services. However, it's focus became Internet
        Connectivity.  It has been somewhat late, though, in
        developing a graphical interface. At time of writing the
        release of DELPHI's graphical interface is imminent. It thus
        rests in position somewhere between the large OnLine Data
        Services and the small-but-upcoming graphically-oriented
        Internet Access providers.
'




        5.3 A Low-cost Alternative - Free-nets

        Free-nets are free-access computer systems. They give the
        general public limited access to the Internet as well as
        access to local bulletin boards and discussion groups. They
        are  run through a  library or educational institution and
        are often sponsored by a local government. Once you've
        located a Free-net, if you have a computer and a modem you
        can logon, often for no charge.

        A given Free-net system  may have a few drawbacks. They
        don't generally have full Internet access and are usually
        limited to text only environments.  Also, their overall size
        may be limited, and if there is a lot of demand you may find
        it difficult to avoid a busy signal when dialing in.

        Many Free-nets are also accessible via Telnet from other
        systems, so once you logon to one Free-net node, you can hop
        around to others.

        The National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) serves as
        an umbrella organization for Free-nets. You can contact them
        by sending mail to info@nptn.org. They publish a weekly-
        updated list of world-wide Free-nets. It can be found posted
        in the Newsgroups alt.freenet or alt.online-service.freenet.
'


        Table 1 - UNIX Command Summary

        Above all else - remember that file and directory are case-
        sensitive !!!

        Append to a file          Command: cat file1 >> file 2

        Change Directory          Command: cd directory
                                  [example   cd /pub ]
                                  [cd without argument returns to
                                    home or top directory]

        Copy a file               Command: cp file1 file2

        Current Directory         Command: pwd
                                  ["present working directory"]

        Compress File             Command: compress file1
                                  [compresses to file1.z]

        Decompress File           Command: uncompress file1.z

        Disk Space Left           Command: du

        List Files                Command: ls -argument (include the "-")
                                  arguements -s = filesize
                                             -F = file type
                                             -cl = by date
                                             -a = invisible files

        Make New Directory        Command: mkdir new-directory-name

        Move a File               Command: mv filename directory

        Remove Directory          Command: rmdir directory-name

        Remove File               Command: rm filename

        Rename File               Use "Move File" to do this

        View Contents of a file   Command: more filename



'



        Chapter 6 - Using NetScout

        Operation is straightforward. You select the resource
        library lists you wish to scan, by clicking the button
        (on/off) adjacent to each. The library lists are described
        in the next chapter.

        Then select from 1 to 3 keywords to search for. You may
        select (via a button click) if you wish to capture entries
        that contain all the keyword ("and" logic) or any of the
        keywords ("or" logic).

        You may set a maximum number of "finds" that the program
        will limit itself to. This can be a timesaver to prevent
        spending a lot of time on a poor choice of keyword that
        results in many entries being selected.
        For example, if you were to include the keyword "UNIX" with
        "or" logic, you would probably find far too many irrelevant
        entries being found.

        All entries which  match the keyword criteria will be stored
        in an output text file. You can specify the filename (the
        default is "search.out")

        Clicking the "Run" button starts a search. A window
        indicates that the program is "BUSY" until the search is
        over. The number of matching entries is also displayed.

        Once you have conducted a search, you can scan the
        individual entries by pressing the "view" button. With the
        "print" button you can send the currently viewed entry to
        your printer. The "next" button steps you through more
        entries. Clicking "Stop" ends the Viewing.

        When viewing resource descriptions, the bar at the bottom
        of the screen gives specific instructions for how to use
        your Internet Service to access the listed resource.

        You can enter choices for an additional search, or click
        "New" to clear all selections

        When you leave the program by clicking  the "Exit" button,
        all you settings are saved, to be used the next time you run
        the program.

'



        Chapter 7 -  Library Lists Available With NetScout

        NetScout works with several library lists that are easily
        available off the Internet. Due to space considerations,
        only a sampling of the lists is supplied along with this
        evaluation copy of the program. However, you can easily
        obtain the full lists themselves following the directions
        below. In order for your downloaded  versions of the lists
        to work with NetScout, each only needs to be combined into a
        single file (if downloaded in multiple parts) and given the
        filename indicated below.

        Name:   Publicly_Accessible_Mailing_Lists
        Description:   List of Maillists on the Internet
                Lists contact procedure and gives a brief description of
                subject for each of 1000 maillists available on the Internet.
        Size:     660 KBytes non-compressed
        Location: anonymous FTP server rtfm.mit.edu path /pub/usenet-
                  by-group/news.lists.
                  filename Publicly_Accessible_Mailing_Lists
                  (14 or more parts). Also re-posted periodically in newsgroup
                  news.announce.newusers.
        Usage :   Combine all parts into one file and rename "maillist.txt"

        Name:   LISTSERV.TXT
        Description:   List of Bitnet Discussion Groups on the Internet/Bitnet
                       Gives a brief description of subject for each of 500+
                       maillists available on Bitnet, a network related to the
                       Internet. This is a different list from MAILLIST.TXT
        Size:   600K Bytes non-compressed
        Location: Send a mail message to listserv@bitnic.bitnet. In the body of
                  the message, have the single entry "list global" (without the
                  quotation marks). Leave the subject field blank .
        Usage:  rename as "listserv.txt"


        Name:   List_of_Active_Newsgroups
        Description: List of all active news groups. Gives newsgroup
                     name and one-line description.
        Size:   Approx. 96 Kbytes non-compressed
        Location : anonymous FTP server rtfm.mit.edu path
                   /pub/usenet-by-group/news.lists
                   filename List_of_Active_Newsgroups (2 parts)
        Usage :   Combine all parts into one file and rename "newslist.txt"


        Name:   ftp-sitelist.txt
        Description:   Comprehensive list of all known FTP servers world-wide.
        Size:   1 MB non-compressed
        Location :     Anonymous FTP server rtfm.mit.edu path
                /pub/usenet/new.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part**
                (17 parts at present and growing)
        Usage :   Combine all parts into one file and rename "ftplist.txt"


        Name:   List of Periodic Informational Postings
        Description:   A list of FAQs archived at a key resource
        Size:   630 KBytes non-compressed
        Location :     Anonymous FTP server rtfm.mit.edu path
                  /pub/usenet/news.answers/periodic-postings/.
        Usage :   Combine all parts into one file and rename "faqlist.txt"



'



        Chapter 8 - Ordering Information

        This is an evaluation copy of NetScout. If you use it for more
        than ten days, you must pay for your copy.  Upon payment, you will
        receive a registration of the program and, if ordered, a complete
        set of the most current versions of the library lists.

        Please use the Order Form below, or contact us at
          Telephone : (617)489-5639
          Internet : bck@world.std.com
          CompuServe : 74252,2350

        *****************************************************************

                            NetScout Order Form
                            -------------------
          Fill in the information below, and mail with a check or money
          order for

           ___ $14.95 for NetScout Program plus Complete Set Of List Files

          or
           ___ $ 9.95 for NetScout Program Registration alone.
          
          Payment in US$ to ;

                           Minuteman Systems
                           P.O. Box 152
                           Belmont, MA. 02178


          Name __________________________________________
      Company:___________________________________________

      Land Mail:
        Street _______________________Apt\MailStop_______
        City/Town ________________ State__ ZipCode_______
        Tele - Business:____________  Home:______________

      Electronic Addresses:
      AOL :________________  Compuserve:_________________
      Internet: __________________Other:_________________



          Media :  ___ 5.25" floppy   ___  3.5" micro-floppy
