
                   THE INTERNET COMPANION


                     A Beginner's Guide

                    to Global Networking







                        TRACY LAQUEY
                    with Jeanne C. Ryer


             Foreword by Vice-President Al Gore











                   AN EDITORIAL INC. BOOK




             Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
 Reading, Massachusetts o Menlo Park, California o New York
    Don Mills, Ontario o Wokingham, England o Amsterdam
   Bonn o Sydney o Singapore o Tokyo o Madrid o San Juan
        Paris o Seoul o Milan o Mexico City o Taipei



























Many of the designations used by manufacturers  and  sellers
to  distinguish  their  products  are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book,  and  Addison-
Wesley was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have
been printed in initial capital letters or all capital  let-
ters.

The authors and publishers have taken care in preparation of
this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of  any
kind  and  assume no responsibility for errors or omissions.
No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential dam-
ages  in  connection  with  or arising out of the use of the
information or programs contained herein.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LaQuey, Tracy 1963-
  The Internet companion: a beginner's guide to global  net-
working/
 Tracy LaQuey with Jeanne C. Ryer.
   p.    cm.
  Includes index.
  ISBN 0-201-62224-6
  1.  Internet  (Computer  network)  I. Ryer, Jeanne C.  II.
Title.
 TK5105.875.I57L37  1992
 384.3--dc20

                                                    92-31691
                                                         CIP

Text copyright (C) 1993 by Tracy LaQuey and Jeanne C. Ryer.

Artwork copyright (C) 1993 by Editorial Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written per-
mission of the publisher.  Printed in the United States of
America.  Published simultaneously in Canada.

Sponsoring Editor: Keith Wollman
Project Editor: Elizabeth Rogalin
Cover and text design: Arisman Design
Illustrations: Steven Ackerman
Set in Meridien and Futura type by Editorial Inc.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -MW- 9695949392
First printing, October 1992

















Contents













Foreword                                                   v
Preface                                                  vii
Acknowledgments                                            x


Chapter 1


Why You Should Know About the Internet                     1
Instantaneous Information and Communication                1
From Whence It Came                                        3
Bigger, Faster, Better                                     6
The Network Community                                      9
Becoming Part of the Internet                             14
The Future                                                19


Chapter 2


Internet: The Lowdown                                     21
A Network of Networks                                     21
How Computers Talk                                        22
Who Runs the Internet?                                    27
Acceptable Use                                            29
Internet Concepts                                         30


Chapter 3


Communicating with People                                 41
All (or Almost All) About Electronic Mail                 42
Conferencing: Groupspeak                                  53
Interactive Discussions                                   66
Netiquette, Ethics, and Digital Tricks of the Trade       68


Chapter 4













Finding Information                                       75
Using Online Resources and Services                       76
Accessing Interactive Services                            80
Online Resources                                          82
Transferring Information                                  88
Finding Resources and Files                              100


Chapter 5


Internet In-the-Know Guide                               109
Legends on the Internet                                  110
Games                                                    112
UNIX on the Internet                                     115
Security Issues                                          116
Internet Organizations                                   124
Finding Email Addresses: The Sequel                      128
Help! Getting More Information                           133


Chapter 6


Getting Connected                                        139
All You Need to Get Started                              140
Types of Individual Connections                          143
Choosing an Individual Access Provider                   150
Connecting Your Business or Organization                 156



Bibliography                                             165
Appendix: Resources                                      169
Index                                                    191




























                                                         vii


Foreword













Computer networks have  been  around  for  over  twenty-five
years,  and in that time they have gone from being a labora-
tory curiosity to a tool used by millions  of  people  every
day. The first network, ARPANET, was used primarily by a few
thousand computer scientists to access computers, share com-
puter  files,  and send electronic mail.  Today, scientists,
engineers, teachers, students,  librarians,  doctors,  busi-
nesspeople,  and  even a few members of Congress rely on the
Internet and other networks to communicate with  their  col-
leagues,   receive   electronic  journals,  access  bulletin
boards, log onto databases, and  use  remote  computers  and
other equipment.

     In the last few years, we have witnessed the democrati-
zation of the Internet. Today, the network connects not only
the  top  research  laboratories  and  universities but also
small  colleges,  small  businesses,  libraries,  and   high
schools  throughout  the  country.  The growth of commercial
networks has enabled much broader access to the  government-
subsidized  portions  of  the  Internet.  And that growth is
accelerating because  the  telecommunications  and  computer
industries have recognized the commercial potential of high-
speed, packet-switched networking and have invested hundreds
of  millions of dollars in developing new switching technol-
ogy and new applications for networks.

     Since I first became interested in high-speed  network-
ing  almost  fifteen  years  ago, there have been many major
advances both in the technology  and  in  public  awareness.
Articles  on  high-speed  networks  are commonplace in major
newspapers and in news magazines.  In contrast,  when  as  a
House  member  in the early 1980s I called for creation of a
national network of ``information superhighways,'' the  only
people  interested  were the manufacturers of optical fiber.
Back then, of course, high speed meant 56,000 bits per  sec-
ond.  Today we are building the National Research and Educa-
tion Network, which will carry billions of bits of data  per
second,  serve thousands of users simultaneously, and trans-
mit not only electronic mail and data files  but  voice  and
video as well.









viii


     Unfortunately,  it is not easy to keep track of all the
new developments in networking.  According  to  some  recent
estimates,  the  amount  of traffic on the Internet has been
increasing 10 percent per  month,  and  the  number  of  new
applications   and  services  has  been  growing  almost  as
quickly. You can now access thousands of different databases
and  bulletin boards on everything from medieval French lit-
erature to global warming. Since the Internet is  a  network
of  networks, there is no one place to go for information on
what's available and how to access it. Most users  have  had
to  rely  on  friends  and colleagues for information on the
Internet.

     That is why I welcome publication of The Internet  Com-
panion.   It  provides  a  valuable  primer on the Internet,
explains the ``rules of the road,''  and  provides  step-by-
step  instructions  on  accessing  many  of  the information
resources available through the Internet.   It  should  help
both  new  and  experienced Internet users learn how to make
the best use of the network.

     For too many people the  Internet  has  been  uncharted
territory,  and  as  a result they have hesitated to explore
the vast potential of networking. I  trust  this  book  will
change that.

                                      Vice-President Al Gore

                                                 August 1992


































                                                          ix


Preface













If  you  want to stay current in the nineties, and even into
the next century, you need  to  learn  about  the  Internet.
Futurists  predict that information and access to it will be
the basis for personal, business, and political  advancement
in  the  next  century.  Whether you want to find the latest
financial news, browse through library catalogs, trace  your
genealogy,  exchange  information  with  your colleagues, or
join in lively political debate, the Internet  is  the  tool
that  will  take you beyond phones, faxes, and isolated com-
puters to the  real  electronic  information  frontier.  The
Internet  can  shrink the world and bring knowledge, experi-
ence, and information on  nearly  every  subject  imaginable
straight  to  your  computer.  It can give you the power and
speed of a supercomputer, even if you have only a  microcom-
puter and a modem.

     The  Internet Companion is an introduction to this vast
electronic wonderland. We will tell you why you need to know
about the Internet and show you how people are already using
it in their  everyday  activities.   We'll  explain  how  to
vitalize  your  home  or office workstation beyond the usual
capacities  of  word  processing,  games,  and  spread-sheet
applications. And we'll introduce you to basic Internet con-
cepts and applications-showing how it's possible  to  travel
electronic highways and reach destinations such as Australia
or Switzerland in mere seconds.  If you're not already  con-
nected  to  the  Internet,  we'll  show  you how you can get
access with only a computer and a modem. Once you get hooked
on the Internet and learn how you can communicate electroni-
cally with people all over the world and access  information
from  thousands of sources, you'll understand why the phrase
exponential growth is mentioned in virtually  every  article
about  the  Internet.   Computers are becoming more powerful
and less expensive. More importantly, they are rapidly being
connected  to allow people to communicate and share informa-
tion.

     You've  likely  heard  of-or  even  used-CompuServe  or
Prodigy,  the commercial networks and information providers.
On the Internet you can travel  far  beyond  the  electronic









x


malls of the commercial services and reach many more people,
for it is much more powerful. It is not difficult to  under-
stand the Internet. Indeed, learning to use the Internet has
been compared-as have many new skills-with learning to  ride
a  bicycle. You have to make the effort to stay upright on a
two-wheeler-or else resign yourself to  riding  a  tricycle.
So, too, learning the Internet requires some commitment, but
the results are well worthwhile. Until the last  few  years,
the  Internet  was the sole province of researchers and com-
puterphiles who had neither the interest, the need, nor  the
time to make a friendly user interface. Fortunately, this is
beginning to change, and a concern for user-friendliness  is
dominating many planning efforts.

     Internet  access  and interfaces vary tremendously, but
you don't have to be a computer expert to use  the  applica-
tions  or  understand  the  concepts. The Internet Companion
will serve as your guide, helping you find the  path  toward
information  you need and telling you everything you need to
know to get started. It also will show you how to  get  more
information, with a thorough bibliography and an appendix of
sources and resources full of free online  books,  hypercard
stacks, and guides.

     The  Internet  Companion is full of examples and sample
commands to  try.  In  general,  computer  names  and  email
addresses  by  themselves  appear  in italics. New terms are
introduced in boldface. Some of the example commands  are  a
mixture of bold and italics; in those cases, you should type
anything in bold exactly as it appears. The  italics  repre-
sent  variable  input that only you can supply, such as your
email address, or your login name.

     Keep in mind that the guidance offered in this book  is
general  by necessity-we can't offer step-by-step directions
that will fit every case. Furthermore, the Internet is  con-
stantly  growing  and  changing,  and new services are being
made available on a daily basis. It's exciting,  but  diffi-
cult  to document. The resource information included was up-
to- date when the book went to press,  but  it  is  possible
that  some  of it will have changed by the time you read it.
Just remember always to read any instructions that are given
when connecting to an online database, and if you have prob-
lems, consult your provider's helpdesk  or  consulting  ser-
vices.

     So  take  a walk on the digital frontier! Get ready for
the next installment of the  Information  Age!  Despite  the
fact  that  the authors have never met face-to-face and live
almost 2000 miles apart, we were able to write this book  in
less than eight weeks by exchanging ideas and drafts through
the Internet. If we can do that, just think about  what  you
can  accomplish!  If you have comments about the book, or if
you have an interesting tale to tell about how the  Internet









                                                          xi


has  changed  your  life, send an email message to internet-
companion@world.std.com.

      Tracy LaQuey, Austin, Texas
      Jeanne C. Ryer, North Sandwich, New Hampshire


























































xii


Acknowledgments








We thank our husbands, Patrick Parker and Philip Wilcox, and
our  families  for  their  support  and encouragement. Laura
Fillmore, our agent and provocateur, gave us  the  necessary
motivation  to keep going, Tim Evans assisted when deadlines
drew near, and Gene Bailey was  always  available  to  offer
much needed and appreciated advice.  The staff at Editorial,
Inc. guided us professionally through the editorial and pro-
duction  process. Our editors at Addison-Wesley, Keith Woll-
man and Elizabeth Rogalin, provided direction and  sensitive
criticism. We'd like to thank Vice-President Al Gore for his
thoughtful foreword and Michael Nelson of  Al  Gore's  staff
for  his assistance. William C. Bard and Tracy LaQuey's col-
leagues at the University of Texas System Office of Telecom-
munication Services helped provide her time for the project,
and Connie Stout of the  Texas  Education  Network  provided
encouragement.  Guy  L.  Steele  Jr.,  L.  Stuart Vance, and
Philip Doty reviewed the manuscript  and  provided  valuable
input.  The  following people also provided valuable advice,
information, and assistance:  Billy  Barron,  Kurt  Baumann,
Duncan   Briggs,  Steve  Campbell,  Vinton  G.  Cerf,  Susan
Estrada, William Green, Geoff Huston,  Ole  Jacobsen,  Brian
Kahin, Brewster Kahle, Peter Kaminski, Sarah F. Lester, Jean
Armour Polly, Anthony  M.  Rutkowski,  Derek  Saunders,  and
Willem Scholten. We also want to thank all of the people who
gave us stories about how they use the Internet.

                                                 The Authors






























Chapter 1


WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
THE INTERNET








The Internet is a loose amalgam  of  thousands  of  computer
networks  reaching  millions  of  people all over the world.
Although its original purpose  was  to  provide  researchers
with  access  to  expensive hardware resources, the Internet
has demonstrated such speed and effectiveness as a  communi-
cations medium that it has transcended the original mission.
Today it's being used  by  all  sorts  of  people-educators,
librarians,  hobbyists,  and businesspeople-for a variety of
purposes, from communicating with each other,  to  accessing
valuable  information  and resources. To appreciate what the
Internet has to offer, imagine discovering a whole system of
highways  and  high-speed connectors that cut hours off your
commuting time. Or a library you could use any time  of  the
night  or  day, with acres of books and resources and unlim-
ited browsing.  Or an all-night, nonstop block party with  a
corner  table  of kindred souls who welcome your presence at
any time. Well, that's the Internet, and this  chapter  will
tell you why you should know about it.

INSTANTANEOUS INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION

The  information age has been ushered in by new and powerful
methods  of  communication.  Gutenberg's  invention  of  the
printing   press   took  books  out  of  the  ecclesiastical
libraries and put them into the hands of the  people.  Then,
the  telephone  system emerged to allow people instantaneous
communication with one another. Now the Internet merges both
these technologies, bringing people and information together
without the middleman (publisher) necessitated by  books  or
the  primarily  one-to-one  synchronous  limitations  of the
telephone system. This is  a  new  dimension-an  electronic,
virtual  world  where time and space have almost no meaning.
People in geographically distant  lands  communicate  across
time  zones  without ever seeing each other, and information
is available 24 hours a day from thousands  of  places.  The
implications  of  this new global communication and informa-
tion system are staggering.

     Instantaneous broadcast of information has been  avail-
able  through television for decades. Much of what we watch,









2


however, is carefully selected and edited according  to  the
discretion  and whims of major networks and advertisers. The
dawn of a new era in television began in 1991, when much  of
the  world  witnessed  the  bombing of Baghdad as Cable News
Network (CNN) provided on-the-ground, uncensored coverage of
an  historic  military  event.  Throughout the Gulf War, CNN
continued to broadcast live from  the  war  zone.  Heads  of
state and generals got their information at the same time as
the rest of the world. Consider that this kind of  instanta-
neous,  around-the-globe  communication  was  already taking
place on the Internet (and other worldwide networks) and, in
fact,  had been widely used for more than a decade. Although
a bit less glamorous-without the video and the heroic  flak-
jacketed  reporters-the  Internet hummed with live bulletins
during the Gulf War, as it also  did  during  the  Tiananmen
Square  confrontation,  the  Soviet  coup attempt, the civic
uprising in Thailand, the riots  in  Los  Angeles,  and  the
civil war in what used to be Yugoslavia.

     But  there  is  a difference between television and the
Internet. In the Gulf War news coverage, we were the  watch-
ers,  dependent  on  a  few men and women with cameras and a
company with the technology to bring those  images  home  to
us.  On the Internet, we are the reporters, the viewers, and
the production team, as well as people just using  the  net-
works  to  talk  to  colleagues and customers and to get our
jobs done. The  phrase  ``democratization  of  information''
often  comes up in discussions about the Internet, which is,
indeed, a truly democratic forum. The network  doesn't  care
if  you're president of a Fortune 500 company or a warehouse
clerk, a potato farmer, or a molecular biologist. Your  com-
munications are handled the same way, and it's the worth and
wit of what you have to say that determines who's willing to
listen-not  your  title.  In  most cases, you're free to say
what you want, when you want. The Internet is  an  open  and
sharing  environment that's remarkably free of censorship, a
tribute to its roots in the academic and  research  communi-
ties.


FROM WHENCE IT CAME

The Internet was not, of course, born full-blown in its pre-
sent  worldwide  form  of  thousands of networks and connec-
tions. It had a humble-but exciting-beginning as one network
called  the  ARPANET,  the  ``Mother of the Internet.''  The
ARPANET began as a U.S.  government  experiment  in  packet-
switched  networking  back in 1969.  ARPA, the Department of
Defense (DOD) Advanced Research Projects Agency (which later
became   DARPA,   the  Defense  Advanced  Research  Projects
Agency), initially linked researchers with  remote  computer
centers,  allowing  them  to  share  hardware  and  software
resources such as computer disk space, databases,  and  com-
puters.   Other experimental networks using packet radio and









                                                           3

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|                   A Coup on the Internet                    |
|                                                             |
|     During the coup attempt that spelled the end of the So- |
|viet Union in August of 1991, a small email company with  an |
|Internet  connection  found itself one of the only available |
|communications medium left.  The KGB had  jammed  the  radio |
|stations and banned all newspapers. Soviet TV programmed old |
|movies and opera. The Western media were cut off.            |
|                                                             |
|     The only  email  carrier  in  the  Soviet  Union  (that |
|charged  in  rubles)  to offer domestic service and interna- |
|tional connections at that time, Relcom (RELiable COMmunica- |
|tions)  was  a small network by Western standards, supplying |
|just under 400 organizations email access mainly by  dialups |
|over the telephone lines. Subscribers typically connected to |
|Relcom using personal computers and their own modems,  which |
|gave them Internet email access by way of EUnet in Helsinki. |
|                                                             |
|     With Gorbachev and glasnost under arrest, Relcom's team |
|of  entrepreneurs  and technicians keyboarded and posted re- |
|leases in both English and Russian from the  banned  newspa- |
|pers  and  news  agencies,  Boris  Yeltsin's defiant decrees |
|(hand-delivered  from  his  headquarters),  and  man-in-the- |
|street  reports  from  their subscribers. Major Western news |
|_____________________________________________________________|

satellite were connected with the ARPANET by using an inter-
network technology sponsored by DARPA.  The original ARPANET
itself split into two  networks  in  the  early  1980s,  the
ARPANET  and  Milnet (an unclassified military network), but
connections made between the networks allowed  communication
to continue.  At first this inter-connection of experimental
and production networks was called the DARPA  Internet,  but
later the name was shortened to just ``the Internet.''

     Access to the ARPANET in the early years was limited to
the  military,  defense  contractors, and universities doing
defense research. Cooperative, decentralized  networks  such
as UUCP, a worldwide UNIX communications network, and USENET
(User's Network) came into being in  the  late  1970s,  ini-
tially serving the university community and later on commer-
cial organizations. In the early 1980s more coordinated net-
works, such as the Computer+Science Network (CSNET) and BIT-
NET, began providing nationwide networking to  the  academic
and  research  communities.  These networks were not part of
the Internet, but later special  connections  were  made  to
allow the exchange of information between the various commu-
nities.

     The next big moment in Internet history was  the  birth
of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) in 1986,
which linked researchers across the country with five super-
computer centers. Soon expanded to connect the mid-level and









4

_______________________________________________________________
|At  the  same  time, Relcom's Internet connection became the |
|only source of news on the coup for the Soviet people.  Rel- |
|com staffers asked for and got massive amounts of email from |
|outside the country, including news from CNN. As one of  its |
|subscribers  wrote  later,  ``When  the dark night fell upon |
|Moscow, Relcom was one source of light  for  us.  Thanks  to |
|these brave people we could get information and hope.''      |
|                                                             |
|     There  were  days  of intense danger at first. Relcom's |
|computer was only a mile from KGB headquarters. ``Don't wor- |
|ry, we're OK,'' wrote one of Relcom's staffers, ``though an- |
|gry and frightened.  Moscow is full of  tanks  and  military |
|machines-I hate them. . .  of our life.''                    |
|                                                             |
|     What  got  Relcom  through  to the outside world? Sheer |
|courage was part of it. There was also what one of  Relcom's |
|hackers  called  ``a  subliminal  professional kernel''; the |
|staff soon set up a diffused network with reserve nodes  and |
|secret  locations,  and the authorities never caught up with |
|them. And beyond that, of course, there was the  great,  big |
|illuminating cloud of the Internet itself.                   |
|                                                             |
|A  condensation of a paper by Larry Press, Professor of Com- |
|puter Information Systems at  California  State  University, |
|Dominguez Hills. Published in full in the proceedings of iN- |
|et '92 in Kobe, Japan (June 15-18, 1992).                    |
|_____________________________________________________________|

statewide academic networks that connected universities  and
research  consortiums,  the  NSFNET  began  to  replace  the
ARPANET for research networking. The ARPANET  was  honorably
discharged  (and dismantled) in March 1990. CSNET soon found
that many of its early  members  (computer  science  depart-
ments)  were  connected  via the NSFNET, so it too ceased to
exist in 1991.


BIGGER, FASTER, BETTER

Around the time NSFNET was built, the Internet began growing
by  leaps and bounds, showing exponential gains in number of
networks, human participants, and computers. Similar  inter-
national  networks  sprung up rapidly all over the world and
connected to the U.S. nets.   For  example,  there  are  now
Internet  connections  to  networks in Australia, the Nordic
countries, the U.K., France,  Germany,  Canada,  and  Japan.
Networks  in  South  America are beginning to connect to the
Internet, but as yet  there  isn't  a  significant  Internet
presence in Africa.

     Internet  fever  continues, growing almost unabated, as
more and more organizations scramble to get  their  networks
connected.  The  current Internet (that's today, as we write
this book) consists of more  than  5000  networks  literally









                                                           5

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|         EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN NUMBER OF COMPUTERS           |
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|In  1981,  213 computers were registered on the Internet; by |
|1989 there were 80,000. In October 1990, there were 313,000; |
|only  three  months  later,  in  January  1991,  there  were |
|376,000. And in January 1992, there  were  727,000  Internet |
|registered  computers. If this trend continues, there should |
|be almost 1.5 million by the  time  this  book  is  in  your |
|hands.  And  these figures are considered to be conservative |
|estimates!                                                   |
|                                                             |
|Source: Lottor, Mark, ``Internet Growth (1981-1991); Network |
|Working Group Request for Comments, RFC 1296, Network Infor- |
|mation  Systems  Center,  SRI  International,  Menlo   Park, |
|_____________________________________________________________|

spanning  the globe. It extends to 45 countries on all seven
continents. (Yes, there's even  an  Internet  connection  to
Antarctica!)  One  estimate,  cited  by Senator Al Gore in a
recent issue of Scientific American, has the amount of traf-
fic  on the Internet growing by 10 per cent each month. It's
been estimated that between 5 and 10 million people use  the
Internet  itself,  and upwards of 15 million people that can
exchange online messages between the Internet and all of the
other interconnecting networks. (See Chapter 2 for an expla-
nation of these connections.)

     Overall, the Internet is  the  fastest  global  network
around.  Speed  is  often referred to as throughput-how fast
information can be propelled through the network.  As  we'll
see  in the next chapter, the Internet isn't just one speed,
because it can accommodate both slow networks and the latest
technology.  The  NSFNET  in the United States currently has
the fastest  overall  speeds,  capable  of  transmitting  45
megabits  per second (about 1,400 typed pages). Gigabit-per-
second network speeds currently being tested will allow even
more  advanced  applications  and  services, such as complex
weather prediction models  produced  by  supercomputers  and
transmitted to weather centers.

     While  exponential growth and high speed certainly con-
tribute to the Internet's reputation as a  notable  network,
another reason is its success in achieving interoperability.
Interoperability is the capacity of many diverse systems  to
work  together to enable communication. It can occur only if
the computers and the network  hardware  adhere  to  certain
standards.

     Although  you  may  not think about it often, standards
play a big part in your everyday life.  Camera  film  always
fits in your camera, and looseleaf paper bought at the drug-
store fits in your binder. Libraries catalog books according









6


to  a  standard  system,  so that once you learn it, you can
walk into any library and find the books  you  need.  Things
that  don't  conform to standards, on the contrary, can make
your life miserable. Standards are just as important in  the
computer and networking world. Without standards, only simi-
lar computers could talk to each other, creating  an   elec-
tronic  Tower of Babel. The standards, or protocols,that the
Internet uses are considered ``open,'' meaning that  they're
publicly available, and they enable disparate computers from
many vendors to talk to each other. Chapter 2  will  explain
this  concept  further, as well as how the protocols and the
networks fit together to make the Internet work.


THE NETWORK COMMUNITY

The Internet community is expanding not only in numbers  but
in breadth of application. The Internet has always been, and
will always be, a key part of the research  and  development
community,  but  the  increase  in  access and the network's
potential for becoming the basis for worldwide communication
between people in all walks of life cannot be ignored by the
rest of us. A network that was once  the  sole  province  of
researchers-and,  well,  geeks-is now home to third-graders,
political activists, farmers, and librarians, as well.

     Journalists use the Internet to cover topics  from  the
computer  business  to current events, and some even conduct
interviews electronically.  Medical researchers share infor-
mation  on diseases such as AIDS.  Doctors transmit x-ray or
CAT-scan images to a medical center  for  further  analysis.
There  are  bulletin  boards for artists and online archives
for agriculture. Elementary and high school students  travel
the  Internet in geography and language arts lessons, learn-
ing about other cultures. Librarians love the  Internet  for
its advanced document searching tools and the almost instant
access to the catalogs and archives of major  libraries  all
over  the  world. Business people contact clients and accept
orders over the network, and many  are  beginning  to  print
email addresses on their business cards.

     In  short, the Internet gives you access to more people
and more information faster than you can imagine,  including
online  catalogs  from most major U.S. academic and research
libraries and from more and more foreign libraries. All told
there  are  at  least  400 libraries' catalogs, and more are
being added almost daily.

     In addition to research resources, the Internet is also
beginning  to  resemble  the commercial information/database
providers like CompuServe and Prodigy in offering up-to-date
weather,  travel  information,  restaurant  reviews,  recipe
archives, and access to UPI newsfeeds and  valuable  commer-
cial legal and business information databases for a fee. The









                                                           7

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|              A Marriage Made on the Internet                |
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|     Rodrigo and I met in Guatemala about 7 years ago,  when |
|we  were  both  studying computer science, and became casual |
|friends, nothing more. In 1990 we  both  left  Guatemala  to |
|pursue grad studies at different universities in the U.S.    |
|                                                             |
|     In  January  of  1991  we exchanged email addresses and |
|started corresponding.  We  discussed  everything  from  our |
|studies, to gossip from back home, to the latest news on the |
|soc.culture.latin-america newsgroup.                         |
|                                                             |
|     By mid-February he was already ending his  messages  by |
|sending me ``a hug.'' Internet email was what really allowed |
|us to share our interests, our coursework, and our ideas and |
|to  get  to know each other in the same way that lovers used |
|to do through letter writing.  Since he insinuated  that  he |
|would like to see me, I packed my bags and, to his surprise, |
|flew to New York that summer . . . and everything went  very |
|well!                                                        |
|                                                             |
|     From then on our email usage increased, plus we started |
|``talking'' interactively on the Internet  for  hours  at  a |
|time,  every  other  night.  Rodrigo finished his coursework |
|and went back to Guatemala. Our country does not have  reli- |
|able  postal  services,  and  with  the extremely high phone |
|rates, it would have been very difficult for us to  stay  in |
|touch  without  email.  The Central American region does not |
|yet have Internet nodes, but there is one UUCP node in Costa |
|Rica, ``huracan,'' of which Rodrigo has become an avid user. |
|                                                             |
|     So for the last six months we have communicated through |
|that  node. Since we're getting married in August, now we're |
|talking wedding arrangements. And yes, we are sending out an |
|electronic  invitation  to  all  our  ``electronic  acquain- |
|tances.''                                                    |
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|Source: Grete Pasch                                          |
|_____________________________________________________________|

free resources still outnumber the commercial ones, however,
which  makes  exploring the Internet fun. We'll tell you how
to tap into this worldwide community of people and  informa-
tion in Chapters 3 and 4.


The Politicians

The  potential  political impact of the Internet hasn't gone
unnoticed on either the national or global political  scene.









8


The  Tiananmen  Square bloodshed, the Yugoslavian civil war,
the fall  of  communism,  the  Los  Angeles  riots-all  were
described by people who witnessed the action and transmitted
live reports across the Internet. The Internet has,  indeed,
played  a  large  part  in  disseminating  information while
events were unfolding.

     Political candidates are starting to realize the  bene-
fits  of  instantaneous  broadcast  of  information to large
groups of people. In this presidential election  year,  most
of  the candidates had email addresses that could be reached
from the Internet. The election  in  general  and  political
platforms  in  particular  were discussed in great detail in
certain electronic forums. In the  future,  electronic  town
meetings will be the norm.
















































                                                           9

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|               The Internet, the Environment,                |
|                        and the Law                          |
|                                                             |
|     Operating  under  the  premise that information is like |
|water in a desert, a group of environmental lawyers are  us- |
|ing  the  Internet to provide access to scientific and legal |
|information to environmental action groups in the developing |
|world.                                                       |
|                                                             |
|     Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW) was formed |
|by public interest  lawyers  in  Peru,  Ecuador,  Australia, |
|Malaysia,  Indonesia,  the  Philippines,  Sri Lanka, and the |
|U.S. E-LAW uses email and conferencing,  starting  with  the |
|EcoNet/PeaceNet  system  in  the  U.S.  and  is  distributed |
|throughout the world on  the  Internet,  BITNET,  and  UUCP. |
|Their  success in networking to remote sites and undeveloped |
|regions has been inspiring to other international groups.    |
|                                                             |
|     Does it work? According to John Bonine, a professor  of |
|Law  at the University of Oregon, ``Ecuadorian public inter- |
|est lawyers have been fighting to prevent oil drilling in  a |
|National  Park  in the Amazon considered to be the most bio- |
|logically diverse on the planet.  They uncovered information |
|on  improper influences in the Ecuadorian judicial system by |
|certain foreign oil companies, drew up a  complaint  to  the |
|U.S.  government,  and publicized the complaint worldwide on |
|the computer networks.'' This effort, combined with  others, |
|may  have  persuaded  a  major North American oil company to |
|drop the project.                                            |
|                                                             |
|     E-LAW's position is that speedy access to  information, |
|whether  scientific  studies  or  other legal actions, helps |
|level the playing field between the people trying to protect |
|fragile  resources  in remote areas of the world and the big |
|multinational companies who have worldwide access to  infor- |
|mation and the resources to press their points of view.      |
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|From  an article by John E. Bonine in Internet Society News, |
|vol. 1, no. 1 (Winter 1992), p. 26. Published by the  Inter- |
|net Society in Reston, Va.                                   |
|_____________________________________________________________|




















10

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|                         SatelLife                           |
|                                                             |
|     Physicians  in Africa are practicing medicine and deal- |
|ing with some of this century's most serious  medical  chal- |
|lenges  in  the midst of staggering ``information poverty.'' |
|In the mid-80s, the problem  caught  the  attention  of  Dr. |
|Bernard  Lown,  founder  of International Physicians for the |
|Prevention of Nuclear War (winner of the Nobel  Peace  Prize |
|in 1985), who felt the high frontier of space should be used |
|for humanitarian rather than military purposes.  He  started |
|SatelLife,  a non-profit organization committed to pro- mot- |
|ing health in the developing  world  by  providing  improved |
|communication  and  exchange  of  information.   SatelLife's |
|HealthNet is a computer network linking medical  centers  in |
|the  Southern  Hemisphere. Using a microsatellite, HealthNet |
|enables physicians and healthcare workers in remote areas to |
|upload and download information to each other and to medical |
|_____________________________________________________________|


The Activists

Activists were among the first  to  realize  the  Internet's
potential  for cheap, fast, global communication. The Inter-
net is a perfect tool for alerting and assembling large num-
bers  of  people electronically.  Amnesty International, for
example,  has  been  using  its  Urgent  Action  Network  on
PeaceNet  to  mobilize  its  members to pressure  government
officials to release political prisoners. It may come as  no
surprise  that  dictators and tyrants don't appreciate their
actions being made public through this democratic tool.































                                                          11

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|     For example, a physician treating an  AIDS  patient  in |
|Zambia,  Africa,  where  the HIV-positive rate approaches 25 |
|percent, could better treat  his  patient  by  communicating |
|with  physicians  and researchers in other African countries |
|as well as with colleagues in  other  parts  of  the  world. |
|Through  HealthNet, he can get a free electronic copy of the |
|New England Journal of Medicine, with  the  latest  research |
|results,  rather  than  waiting six months to receive a copy |
|that might cost half his monthly salary. Using the HealthNet |
|system,  this  physician can query researchers about new de- |
|velopments, such as the possible  connection  between  polio |
|vaccines  and  AIDS  in Africa, or about new drugs developed |
|for AIDS treatment.                                          |
|                                                             |
|     Staffed by people in Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  Satel- |
|Life received a major contribution for their first satellite |
|from NEC Corp.  SatelLife's second satellite is slated to be |
|launched  in  1993. With ground stations in Africa (and soon |
|in Brazil),  SatelLife  stations  connect  to  the  Internet |
|through  a  gateway  in  Newfoundland. Ultimately, SatelLife |
|hopes to use the Internet, and electronic  communication  in |
|general, to create partnerships for better health.           |
|                                                             |
|                                                             |
|Based on an interview with Charles Clements, M.D., Executive |
|Director of SatelLife.                                       |
|_____________________________________________________________|


     PeaceNet is part of the Institute for Global Communica-
tions  (IGC) network, probably the best-known and most effi-
ciently coordinated computer effort for peace and protection
of  the environment. Through its connection to the Internet,
IGC encourages people to ``dial locally, act  globally''  to
collaborate  on  peace  issues. Another IGC network, EcoNet,
focuses on  the  many  environmental  issues  affecting  our
planet  and  has  forums  and information on global warming,
destruction of the rain forests, legislation affecting envi-
ronmental  programs, toxic chemicals entering the water sup-
ply, and education of the general  public  on  environmental
issues.

     The  Internet explosion has had an interesting environ-
mental side-effect, effectively allowing more and more  peo-
ple  to telecommute to their jobs. As pressure to reduce air
pollution from automobiles continues  to  mount,  increasing
access  to  the Internet for ordinary people will allow more
to work at  home and leave cars in the garage.  Telecommuni-
cating  will  also  give  handicapped  users  the freedom to
travel electronically and give families more  time  together
at home.











12


BECOMING PART OF THE INTERNET

Whether  you  have a PC or a Cray YMP supercomputer, a high-
speed network or a regular telephone line, you can get  con-
nected  to  the  Internet.  There  are  two basic methods of
access available for individuals: through an  organization's
network,  or  through a computer, modem, and telephone line.
The basic costs are explained below, but Chapter 6 discusses
some  of the available options in more detail and also tells
you the general steps to take if you wish  to  connect  your
organization's network.


Costs

For  many  people,  the Internet is an all-around good deal.
People who have access to the Internet through an  organiza-
tion, such as a university or a large company, don't have to
worry about how much they use the Internet. Their communica-
tion  with people from all over the world and access to most
information resources is not going to show up itemized on  a
long-distance  bill,  because  the  leased  lines or network
links are already paid for. For those users, it's like  hav-
ing a WATS line with no limit.

     Individual  users  without  the benefit of organization
apron string links, in contrast, must get their access  from
commercial  Internet  providers,  or  public access Internet
sites, or a digital rich uncle giving  away  access  through
public  accounts.  Access  for  those  with a computer and a
modem is usually through a local telephone call to a  server
or  computer.  The  costs  can  vary,  but  many  commercial
providers charge a flat rate monthly fee that isn't bad com-
pared  with the potential gain of instant worldwide communi-
cation. Some providers charge as  little  as  $20/month  for
unlimited electronic mail. But, just as the telephone system
still  doesn't  quite  reach  everyone  worldwide,  Internet
access  is  not  always easily available or reasonable. Many
people in remote areas or foreign countries must make expen-
sive long-distance calls to send and receive electronic mail
or to access resources.  Often isolated and  desiring  human
contact  and access to information, they find the extra cost
worth it-if they can afford it.


The U.S. National Research and Education Network

Although the Internet is spreading quickly around the  world
and  more  and  more organizations are connecting to it, not
all U.S.  academic and research institutions are  connected.
Recognizing the importance of having the United States main-
tain technological superiority, Senator Al Gore sponsored  a
bill,  ``High-Performance Computing Act of 1991,'' which was
signed  into  law  in  December   1991.   This   authorizing









                                                          13


legislation  promotes  technical leadership by providing all
researchers with access to powerful supercomputer  resources
and  valuable information resources. The bill also calls for
coordinating and combining several federal  agencies'  indi-
vidual networking efforts into one high-capacity, high-speed
network that will connect all academic and research institu-
tions  and  federal agencies. Known as the National Research
and Education Network (NREN), this network will, in essence,
be  the  successor  to the research and education portion of
the Internet in the United States.

     ``High-speed'' in this  bill  means  gigabit-per-second
speeds.  For example, an entire encyclopedia could be trans-
ferred in less than three seconds. This encyclopedia  metric
is  often used to describe how fast the network will be, but
it's important to realize that although some advanced appli-
cations,   such  as  videoconferencing,  will  require  high
speeds, this capacity  will  be  used  more  to  handle  the
increasing  number of people that will be using the network.
You can compare this additional capacity to a 10-lane  high-
way:  the  number  of  lanes does not enable you to drive 10
times faster; it just allows more cars to travel at the same
time.

     The   NREN   will  use  this  added  capacity  to  link
researchers with expensive hardware resources such as super-
computers.  Access  to  valuable  information  databases and
online libraries will benefit the ``E''  in  the  NREN,  the
education community, hooking up all of the 2-year and 4-year
colleges and universities. And, in addition to all the fancy
applications,  visualization,  and  multimedia services that
will no doubt appear,  remote  learning  applications,  more
user-friendly tools, and directories of people and resources
are also planned. While all of this should be in place some-
time  in  the  mid-1990s, the NREN actually exists now.  The
NSFNET, the nationwide network connecting  the  majority  of
academic  and research institutions in the United States, is
now referred to as the ``Interim NREN.'' The whole  idea  is
to  use  existing  resources, building on top of the current
infrastructure, instead of ``reinventing the wheel.''























14

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|               The Internet and the Classroom                |
|                                                             |
|     Patsy Lanclos, a TENET Trainer, is an enthusiastic sup- |
|porter  of  the  Internet  and  how it is being used in K-12 |
|classrooms. When asked what she thought of the Internet, she |
|had this to say:                                             |
|                                                             |
|     ``You  know,  I think one of the greatest things I have |
|seen regarding TENET and the Internet is the  enthusiasm  it |
|has put back into teachers. Teachers who were tired and worn |
|have suddenly been retread and are ready to roll!  They  are |
|out  there creating new and innovative lessons incorporating |
|telecommunications of all kinds. They are taking risks. They |
|are asking for the unthinkable-telephone lines in the class- |
|rooms and computers! They want to belong. It has  created  a |
|wonderful  network  of  support. You really aren't out there |
|alone!                                                       |
|                                                             |
|     ``One of the classes became acclimatized to TENET  when |
|they wanted to know things in a hurry. Instead of waiting to |
|hear it on the news, read the paper, or listen to the radio, |
|the comments were, `Let's access the UPI news and find out!' |
|From the Brenham explosion to  the  California  quakes,  the |
|news was there instantly.''                                  |
|_____________________________________________________________|


     It  is  imperative  that  this  technology, now readily
available to many scientists and researchers, be extended to
practical  applications  in  K-12  education, libraries, the
health care  industry,  and  manufacturing  and  be  further
extended  to the home. The NREN will provide the basis for a
national public network that will connect grade schools  and
libraries,  hospitals  and  factories.   Already there are a
growing number of K-12  schools  and  districts  being  con-
nected.  The  Texas  Education  Network (TENET), a statewide
K-12 education network with a connection  to  the  Internet,
currently links over 15,000 educators in Texas. These teach-
ers and administrators are using the network to  communicate
with other educators all over the world and to access educa-
tional resources





















                                                          15

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|             The Internet and Business Success               |
|                                                             |
|     According to Alvin Toffler,  the  well-known  futurist, |
|the  economic well-being of the United States depends on the |
|continuing development of the networks. ``Because so much of |
|business  now  depends  on  getting and sending information, |
|companies around the world have been rushing to  link  their |
|employees  through electronic networks.  These networks form |
|the key infrastructure of the 21st century, as  critical  to |
|business  success  and  national economic development as the |
|railroads were in Morse's era.''                             |
|                                                             |
|Source: Alvin Toffler, Power Shift (New York: Bantam  Books, |
|1990), p. 102.                                               |
|_____________________________________________________________|


such  as  an  online encyclopedia, the Educational Resources
Information Center Documents Database (ERIC), lesson  plans,
study guides, current events (including daily guides such as
CNN Newsroom and Stardate), and UPI news.  It's  interesting
to  note  that  the  growth  of  this network paralleled the
growth of the Internet.  The  Texas  Education  Agency  pre-
dicted  there  would  be, at most, 3,000 participants at the
end of the first year of operation; there were 13,000. Texas
is  not  the  only  state that has initiated K-12 networking
projects. Virginia, for  example,  has  a  similar  network,
called the Virginia Public Education Network (VA.PEN).


The International Commercial Network

The  NREN  is often compared to the national highway system,
as a sort of electronic information freeway built, operated,
and  funded by the U.S. government. As you'll see in Chapter
2, there are some acceptable  use  restrictions  prohibiting
information  of  a  commercial nature on federally sponsored
networks, and it's not clear yet how these rules will  apply
to  the  future NREN. However, commercial Internet providers
are appearing, building their own international networks and
offering  access to the general public and businesses around
the world.

     Business people are beginning to realize the importance
of  being  well-connected in order to be more competitive in
the global marketplace. New players, such as the new coordi-
nated European market and the former Eastern bloc countries,
are broadening the playing field. In order to compete, busi-
nesses  need  the  advantages  of  instant communication and
access to valuable information.  More  and  more  commercial
information  providers and networks, such as Dialog and Com-
puServe, are establishing connections to the Internet,  tak-
ing  advantage  of  its  worldwide  reach and allowing their









16


customers more communication options. Recent statistics con-
firm  that  commercial organizations are flocking to connect
to the Internet in greater numbers than ever. This  movement
started  in the late 1980s, when the requirement for federal
sponsorship of access to the Internet was dropped. The trend
shows that many others will be connecting.


THE FUTURE

It's  hard  to know what will happen in the future. Internet
experts don't have a great track record  when  it  comes  to
predicting how people are actually going to use it for their
everyday needs. The developers of the  early  ARPANET  envi-
sioned  it  being used to bring expensive hardware resources
closer to researchers. What  they  didn't  expect  was  that
electronic  mail would become so heavily used by researchers
at geographically distant sites wanting to talk and collabo-
rate  with each other. Although the NSFNET was built to con-
nect supercomputers, it is now used more  for  collaboration
and access to information.

     As  the  Internet  connects  more  people and starts to
yield more applications, it will be used for more than  just
electronic mail and transferring files. Internet engineering
groups have played  with  connecting  vending  machines  and
household  appliances  such  as  toasters and stereos to the
Internet, allowing them to  be  operated  remotely.  Several
recent  experiments  allowed network engineering meetings in
San  Diego  and  Boston  to  be  ``virtually  attended''  by
researchers  in  Australia and Europe and other parts of the
United States by transmitting audio and video images of  the
conference.  No  doubt,  other  virtual reality applications
incorporating  multimedia-sound  and  graphics  will  appear
soon.

     The  future  of  the  Internet, while hard to foretell,
will be exciting.  Many future applications  will  make  the
Internet ''transparent'' to people who are using it. That is
to say, the network and computer will be integrated  in  the
home and office, performing important, vital functions with-
out making you aware of the nitty-gritty  details.   Already
there are interesting applications appearing that are making
the Internet easy  to  use  by  simply  hiding  the  network
details.  You  don't actually have to know where information
is or where resources are located; the  applications  figure
that out for you.

     At this point, you're probably less concerned about the
future of the Internet than about your own immediate  future
on  the  Internet. So stay with us as we explain a bit about
how it works and some concepts you need to  know  before  we
take  you to this electronic world. Onward to Chapter 2, for
the ``lowdown'' on the Internet.









                                                          17


Chapter 2


INTERNET: THE LOWDOWN










Ask an Internet wizard what this network is all  about,  and
you'll  probably  get  a long and sawdusty discourse studded
with acronyms and techspeak. It's friendly if  you  approach
it right, but potentially huge and terrifying, especially to
people who don't know its  special  ways.  In  this  chapter
we'll  try  to  explain  some  of  the basic principles that
underlie the Internet. Let's begin with the  most  important
principle of all: You don't have to fully understand how the
Internet works to  use  it.  Plenty  of  blissfully  unaware
Internet  users  are pounding away at keyboards and communi-
cating merrily, with absolutely  no  knowledge  of  how  the
Internet  fits  together.   But  although  ignorance  may be
bliss, the more you know, the more doors are open to you. So
here goes.

A NETWORK OF NETWORKS

The  Internet  is  a worldwide web of interconnected univer-
sity, business, military, and science networks.  Why  do  we
say  a ``web''?  Isn't the Internet just one network? Not at
all!  It is a network of networks. The Internet is  made  up
of little Local Area Networks (LANs), city-wide Metropolitan
Area Networks (MANs), and huge  Wide  Area  Networks  (WANs)
connecting  computers  for organizations all over the world.
These networks are hooked together with everything from reg-
ular  dialup  phone  lines  to  high-speed  dedicated leased
lines, satellites, microwave links, and fiber  optic  links.
And the fact that they're ``on'' the Internet means that all
these networks are interconnected.  This network web extends
all over the United States and out to the rest of the world,
but trying to describe all of it and how it fits together is
a bit like trying to count the stars.

     In fact, so many networks are interconnected within the
Internet that it's impossible to show  an  accurate,  up-to-
date  picture.  Some  network  maps  show  the Internet as a
cloud, because it's just too complex to draw in all  of  the
links.  To  complicate  matters,  lots  of new computers and
links are being added every day.










18

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|                   A Very, Very Long Cat                     |
|                                                             |
|     Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied: |
|``You see, wiretelegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. |
|You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los |
|Angeles.  Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly |
|the same way: you  send  signals  here,  they  receive  them |
|there. The only difference is that there is no cat.'' If ra- |
|dio is a very, very long cat, then what is the  Internet?  A |
|very, very long tiger?                                       |
|                                                             |
|Source: UNIX Fortune program.                                |
|_____________________________________________________________|

     So  just think of the Internet as a ``cloud of links.''
The cloud hides all the ugly details-the hardware, the phys-
ical  links, the acronyms, and the network engineers. Remem-
ber that you don't actually need to know all the details  to
communicate and use resources on the Internet.


HOW COMPUTERS TALK

The  computers  on a network have to be able to talk to each
other. To do that they use protocols, which are  just  rules
or  agreements  on  how  to communicate. Standards were men-
tioned in Chapter 1 as an important aspect in computer  net-
working.  There  are  lots  of protocol standards out there,
such as DECnet, SNA, Novell, and Appletalk, but to  actually
communicate,  two computers have to be using the same proto-
col at the same time.  TCP/IP, which stands for Transmission
Control  Protocol/Internet  Protocol, is the language of the
Internet. You may speak Japanese and I  may  speak  English,
but if we both speak French, we can communicate. So any com-
puter  that  wants  to  communicate  on  the  Internet  must
``speak''  TCP/IP.  Developed  by DARPA in the 1970s, TCP/IP
was part of an experiment in internetworking-that  is,  con-
necting  different  types  of networks and computer systems.
First used on the ARPANET in 1983, it was  also  implemented
and  made  available  at  no  cost for computers running the
Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) of the  UNIX  operating
system.  TCP/IP, developed using public funds, is considered
an open, nonproprietary protocol, and there are  now  imple-
mentations  of  it  for almost every type of computer on the
planet. ``Nonproprietary'' means  that  no  one  company-not
IBM,  not  DEC, not Novell-has a lock on the products needed
to connect to the Internet. Any number of companies make the
hardware  and software necessary for the network connection.

     TCP/IP isn't the only protocol suite that is considered
``open.''  Since the early 1980s the International Organiza-
tion for Standardization (ISO) has been developing the  Open
Systems  Interconnection (OSI) protocols.  While many of the









                                                          19


OSI protocols and applications are still evolving, a few are
actually  being  used  in some networks on the Internet, and
more are planned. So even though most of the computers speak
TCP/IP,  the  Internet  is  officially considered a ``multi-
protocol'' network.

     The whole idea of protocols and standards can get  com-
plicated,  but  as  an Internet neophyte, all you need to be
concerned  with  are  the  basic  applications  that  TCP/IP
offers.


The Internet Toolbox

Three TCP/IP applications-electronic mail, remote login, and
file transfer-are the Internet  equivalent  of  the  hammer,
screwdriver,  and crescent wrench in your toolbox. There are
plenty of fancier applications using variations on or combi-
nations  of  these basic tools, but wherever you roam on the
Internet, you should have the Big Three  available  to  you.
We'll be covering the three basic Internet services in later
chapters, but here's a quick introduction to get you on your
way.

     Electronic  mail,  also known as email or messaging, is
the most commonly available and most frequently used service
on  the  Internet. Email lets you write and send a text mes-
sage to another person or to a whole group  of  people.  For
example,  a  third-grade  student in Texas can send an email
message to a third-grader in Japan to  ask  how  kids  spend
their  free  time  there. Or a group of teachers can have an
email conference on using the Internet in the classroom.

     Remote login is an interactive tool that allows you  to
access  the  programs  and applications available on another
computer.  Say, for example, that Sven,  a  student  at  the
University  of Oslo, who is heading out to a ski vacation in
the Rocky Mountains, wants to check out the  weather  condi-
tions  and  snowfall there. An Internet computer at the Uni-
versity of Michigan houses a  weather  database  called  the
Weather  Underground,  with temperatures, precipitation, and
even earthquake alerts for the entire  United  States.  Sven
uses  the  remote login tool to connect to this computer and
interactively query the Weather Underground for the informa-
tion he needs.

     File  transfer,  the  third of the ``Big Three'' tools,
allows files to be transferred from one computer to another.
A  file  can  be  a  document,  graphics,  software, spread-
sheets-even sounds!  For example, you may be  interested  in
information  on  Chernobyl  from  the  Library of Congress's
``Glasnost'' online exhibit of  documents  from  the  former
Soviet  Union.  Using  file transfer, you can download those
articles from the computer they're stored  on  to  your  own









20


personal  computer, where you can read them, print them out,
or clip and incorporate parts of them into  a  paper  you're
writing.


How Does TCP/IP Work?

When you're actually using the above-mentioned tools, infor-
mation of various types is being transferred from  one  com-
puter  to  another.   TCP/IP  breaks  this  information into
chunks called packets.  Each packet contains a piece of  the
document (several hundred characters, or bytes) plus some ID
tags, such as the addresses of  the  sending  and  receiving
computers.

     Say  you  wanted to take apart an old covered bridge in
New England and move it lock, stock and barrel to California
(people  do  do  these things). You would dismantle the sec-
tions, label them very  carefully,  and  ship  them  out  on
three, four, maybe even five different trucks. Some take the
northern route and some the southern route, and one just has
to go through Texas. The trucks get to California at various
times with one arriving a little later than the others,  but
your  careful  labels  indicate which section goes up first,
second, and third.

     So each packet, as TCP/IP handles it with its  address-
ing  information,  can travel just as independently. Because
of all the network interconnections, there are often  multi-
ple  paths  to a destination. Just as you might drive a dif-
ferent route to work to save a few minutes  here  or  there,
the packets may travel different networks to get to the des-
tination computer. The packets may arrive out of order,  but
that's  okay,  because  each  packet  also contains sequence
information about where the data it's carrying goes  in  the
document,  and  the  receiving  computer can reconstruct the
whole enchilada. And that's why the Internet is known  as  a
packet-switched  network.  The switches are computers called
routers, which are programmed to figure out the best  packet
routes,  just as a travel agent might help you find the best
flights with the fewest layovers. Routers  are  the  airport
hubs  of the Internet which connect the networks and shuttle
packets back and forth. The packet is just a chunk of infor-
mation; it doesn't care (or know) how fast it travels. So it
can travel over a ``fighter-jet'' network, running at  Mach-
whatever  speeds  and connecting supercomputers, that inter-
connects with a ``biplane'' network operating a lot  slower.


The Networks That Make up the Internet

The  Internet  network connections don't follow any specific
model, but there is a hierarchy  of  sorts.  The  high-speed
central  networks  are  known  as  backbones. The electronic









                                                          21


equivalent of an  interstate  highway  system,  they  accept
traffic  from and deliver it to the mid-level networks. Mid-
level networks, in turn, take traffic from the backbones and
distribute it to their own member networks, the neighborhood
roads of the networking world. The network links have  speed
limitations,  but  speeds  are  determined by the technology
used (not by some ``Packet Policeman'').


Seamless Worldwide Networking

The bottom line here is that the Internet, which is actually
thousands  of  networks,  looks  seamless  to the user. Also
known as the internet-working or internet concept, it  hides
all  the  details from you-the packets, the routers, and all
those interconnections.  Despite legions of  different  com-
puters  and disparate networks, somehow the whole web works,
and any computer directly connected to the Internet can talk
to  all the other computers on the Internet. So you, working
on a computer in your office in Iowa or in your  spare  bed-
room  in  Los  Angeles,  can communicate with a colleague in
South Africa or a friend in Calgary.  It's  as  if  you  are
directly connected by one wire.


WHO RUNS THE INTERNET?

So  who  controls this web, this cloud, this network of net-
works?  Well, as Christopher Davis, an Internet regular,  so
concisely put it when asked this question: ``Lots of people,
and nobody, and  the  National  Science  Foundation,  kinda,
sorta.''

     Well put. People is the operative word here. The Inter-
net seems to be both institutional and anti-institutional at
the  same time, massive and intimate, organized and chaotic.
In a sense the Internet is a cooperative endeavor, with  its
member networks kicking in money, hardware, maintenance, and
technical expertise. The U.S.  government has a  big  influ-
ence  on  the  federally  funded  parts of the Internet. The
National Science Foundation  (NSF),  for  example,  provides
funding  to assist academic and research networks in getting
started.  NSF initiated the NSFNET, the nationwide  backbone
in the United States that connects these mid-level networks,
which in turn connect universities and other  organizations.
For this reason, NSF sets policy for and operates a chunk of
the Internet in the United States, but it does not have con-
trol over all the mid-level networks it connects.

     In  addition  to  the  NSFNET there are other federally
funded and operated backbones in areas such as the military,
space  science,  and energy research. The Federal Networking
Council (FNC) was formed to coordinate these efforts, and it
will  be  working  toward  combining them into the NREN (see









22


Chapter 1). There are also, of  course,  many  international
networks  that are overseen by other governments and organi-
zations.  Technical coordination of  the  Internet  is  more
centralized.  For example, the NSFNET is technically managed
and operated by Advanced Network  Services,  Inc.  (ANS),  a
company established by Merit, Inc., IBM Corporation, and MCI
Communications Corporation.   Furthermore,  the  development
and  improvement  of  TCP/IP  protocols is sanctioned by the
Internet Society. Chapter 5 provides more information  about
that organization.

     Of  particular  interest to business users are the com-
mercial Internet providers that  have  sprouted  up  in  the
United  States-companies  such  as UUNET Communications Ser-
vices, Performance  Systems  International  (PSI),  Advanced
Networks & Services Inc. (ANS), Sprint's Sprintlink, and the
California  Education  and   Research   Federation   Network
(CERFnet).   UUNET,  PSI, Sprint, and CERFnet have intercon-
nected their backbone networks to form the Commercial Inter-
net Exchange, or the CIX (pronounced ``kicks''). In addition
to connecting organizations' networks, all of these  commer-
cial  providers offer users with modem-equipped PCs and Macs
access to the Internet, this huge electronic cooperative  of
people and institutions.

     Another interesting undertaking is the Enterprise Inte-
gration Network (EINet), being spearheaded by Microelectron-
ics  and  Computer Technology Corporation (MCC).  EINet uses
UUNet's nationwide backbone, Alternet, to offer  value-added
services,  an  Internetwork infrastructure purely in support
of business and commercial applications. The  appendix  con-
tains contact information for all of these providers.


ACCEPTABLE USE

As  you  can  imagine,  with all the people and networks and
government agencies participating in the Internet, there are
bound  to  be rules, restrictions, and policies for parts of
it. Probably the best  known  and  most  widely  applied  is
NSFNET's  Acceptable Use Policy, which basically states that
transmission of ``commercial'' information or traffic is not
allowed  across the NSFNET backbone, whereas all information
in support of academic and research  activities  is  accept-
able.


















                                                          23

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|                  Living on the Fault Line                   |
|                                                             |
|     One  California energy company uses the Internet exten- |
|sively to give it a competitive edge in  the  energy  explo- |
|ration  business.   Earthquakes  shake  things up in the oil |
|business, so their seismic  engineers  transfer  the  latest |
|earthquake  data  from Caltech to help find potential payoff |
|in their existing geothermal fields. Data from a recent Cal- |
|ifornia  earthquake was in the hands of the engineers within |
|minutes of release by Caltech.                               |
|                                                             |
|     The company also uses the Internet to get state-of-the- |
|art  software  for modelling seismic data and technical con- |
|sulting on the uses of fractals in seismic work.  Access  to |
|the research community through the Internet keeps the compa- |
|ny up to the minute in a very competitive business.          |
|                                                             |
|Source: Peter Ho, Unocal Corp.                               |
|_____________________________________________________________|

     What is ``commercial'' traffic? Some examples are  pur-
chase  orders,  invoices,  and unsolicited advertising. How-
ever, there is a gray area including, for example, announce-
ments of products or software updates.  Such information may
be acceptable because many times it is considered  important
and useful to academic and research organizations. Many peo-
ple also use the Internet to request information about  ven-
dors    and    their    products.    In    this    instance,
responses-including   pricing   information-are    generally
acceptable, because they were solicited by a user.

     But restrictions are not universal, especially with the
advent of  commercial  network  providers  selling  Internet
access.  These providers may or may not have restrictions or
acceptable use policies for their own networks. When traffic
from  their  backbones  requires  passage  over  the NSFNET,
though, things can get a little sticky. Commercial providers
usually  make  their  customers  aware  of acceptable use on
other networks.

     It sounds somewhat complicated, but you need to  remem-
ber  that  the original Internet began as a U.S. government-
funded experiment, and no one  expected  it  to  become  the
widespread,  heavily  used  production  network it is today.
It's going to take a while for commercialization and  priva-
tization of these networks to occur. The Internet as a whole
continues to move to support-or at  least  to  allow  access
to-more  and  more  commercial activity. We may have to deal
with some conflicting policies while that  process  evolves,
but  at  some point in the near Internet future, free enter-
prise will likely prevail and commercial activity will  have
a  defined  place, making the whole issue moot. In the mean-
time, if you're planning to use the Internet for  commercial









24


reasons,  make  sure  that the networks you're using support
your kind of activity.


INTERNET CONCEPTS

We'll soon be telling you how  to  get  your  hands  on  the
Internet,  but  before then-as with almost any new adventure
in a foreign land-you'll need to acquire a bit of new vocab-
ulary.   The basic concepts are simple, and because the net-
work protocols do much of the work, you don't have to become
an Internet maven to travel its highways and byways.


Names and Addresses

If  you've  ever  travelled  in a country where you couldn't
read the street signs or figure out how  they  numbered  the
houses,  you'll understand the wisdom of learning the Inter-
net's name and address system. Most computers on the  Inter-
net  can be identified in two ways. Each computer has a name
and a numerical address (both unique), just as  most  of  us
can be located by our names or numerically by our phone num-
bers. It's easier to remember a name than  a  phone  number,
and it's the same on the Internet. An Internet computer name
is usually several  words  separated  by  periods,  such  as
planet10.yoyodyne.com.   An Internet address, or technically
an IP address, is four numbers also separated by periods-for
example, 161.44.128.70.

     When  you're saying these names and addresses out loud,
to look like you belong you should substitute dots  for  the
``periods.''  This is known as dotspeak, and there's a whole
lot of it in the Internet. In the examples above, you  would
say  ``planet10  dot yoyodyne dot com'' and ``161 dot 44 dot
128 dot 70.''

     The idea is for people to use the computers' names when
accessing  resources  and  to  let the computers and routers
work with the IP addresses.  Each Internet-connected organi-
zation  keeps  a  database of the names and addresses of all
the computers connected to its own networks.  Because  there
are  so  many  computers on the Internet and no real central
authority, name assignment is best left to  the  local  net-
works.  Imagine  if everyone had to get their new phone num-
bers from Washington, D.C.!  The Defense Data Network  (DDN)
Network  Information Center (NIC), which is operated by Gov-
ernment Systems, Inc., in Chantilly, Virginia, does  provide
a  central  registering  authority  in the United States for
organizations' second-level domain names  and  network  num-
bers.  Each  organization  then  assumes  responsibility for
assigning names and numbers to its computers.

     So how's it work? When you  want  to  access  a  public









                                                          25


domain software archive on the wuarchive.wustl.edu computer,
a database  at  Washington  University  in  St.  Louis  (the
wustl.edu domain) is consulted to find out the IP address of
that computer.  The address (not the name) is passed  on  to
the  routers  so  that they can make the connection. This is
done automatically and transparently to you.

     Why, then, do you need to know about IP addresses, when
the  system  was designed so that you shouldn't ever need to
concern yourself with them? The answer, as you may  suspect,
is  that  things  don't always work perfectly, and there may
come a time when you will need to  know  an  IP  address  to
access  a  resource.  For  this  reason,  many resources are
listed with the computer's name and its IP address. The rec-
ommended  practice is always to use the computer name, since
IP numbers-like telephone numbers-can  change,  while  names
tend to stay the same (see Chapter 5 for more information on
finding IP addresses).


Domain Name System

There's actually a method to these names  and  addresses:  a
naming  system  known as the Domain Name System, or DNS. The
DNS is also the worldwide system of distributed databases of
names and addresses.  These databases provide the ``transla-
tion'' from names to numbers  and  vice  versa,  a  sort  of
international Who's Who of computers.

     DNS  names  are  constructed  in  a hierarchical naming
fashion, which you can think of as a worldwide  organization
chart.  At  the  top  of this chart are top-level specifica-
tions, like EDU (educational), COM (commercial),  GOV  (gov-
ernment),  MIL  (military),  ORG  (organizations), NET (net-
works), and also 2-letter country codes  (like  US  for  the
United States and CH for Switzerland).

     An organization can register for a domain name, select-
ing one of the top-level specifications mentioned above that
describes  it best and then preceding it with a recognizable
version of its name.  So, for example, the Yoyodyne Software
Systems  company  will have a domain name like yoyodyne.com.
From there, it can divide itself into subdomains,  extending
the  organization chart to department levels, or it can just
give all of its computers names in the yoyodyne.com  domain.

     Once  you  understand  how this naming system works you
can remember names more easily, and you can also tell things
about  a  computer, such as to what organization it belongs.
The names do  not,  however,  always  indicate  geographical
location. For example, planet10.yoyodyne.com may be the main
computer at the home office in  Grovers  Mill,  New  Jersey,
mars.yoyodyne.com  may  be  at  the  Hong Kong branch, while
venus.yoyodyne.com  might  be  located  at  the  Santa  Cruz









26


division.

     Many U.S. organizations and companies use the 3- letter
designations mentioned above (for  example,  EDU,  COM,  and
ORG). However, most countries have stipulated that organiza-
tions  use  their  2-letter  country  codes  for   top-level
domains.    For    example,   an   actual   computer   name,
quake.think.com, refers to a  commercial  (COM)  enterprise:
The  computer's  name  is   quake and it belongs to Thinking
Machines Corporation (think), a supercomputer  manufacturer.
Another  example is fujitsu.co.jp, a computer at the Fujitsu
Company in Japan. (jp  is  the  2-letter  country  code  for
Japan.)

     Now  you  probably have a few questions. After learning
about the DNS, every new Internet user first wants to get  a
list  of  all  the computers on the Internet. After all, you
have a telephone directory of all the people  in  your  home
area.  But  there  is no exact, up-to-date Internet name and
address list available in hard copy or online anywhere.

     In the early days of the ARPANET, a list was maintained
by  the  DDN's  Network Information Center, but the Internet
grew too rapidly to keep  up  with  all  the  additions  and
changes.  The  distributed  domain  name system has replaced
this centrally managed list and has allowed the Internet  to
grow gracefully.

Internet Resources

While  a list of computer names would not be very helpful, a
list of online resources would. Resources  on  the  Internet
are  all  of the useful things that you can access: hardware
like supercomputers, graphics  labs,  computer  centers,  or
printers.   Or   online   information  like  the  wealth  of
databases,  documents,  software,  archives,  pictures,  and
sounds.  Resources  can also be people. If you can talk to a
group of people to figure out the answer to  a  question  or
problem,  they are a resource; so are mailing lists and con-
ferencing systems.  An online forum on school networking  or
a   workgroup   on   molecular  biology  are  both  Internet
resources. Your understanding of the  astonishing  array  of
Internet resources, and how to get at them, will grow as you
learn your way around the Internet.


Internet or Outernet?

To better understand what the Internet is, you also need  to
understand  what  the  Internet is not and what networks are
not on the Internet. There are a number  of  worldwide  net-
works that use protocols other than TCP/IP and provide their
own sets of services. Some don't allow remote  login,  while
some  employ  different  file  transfer methods; many have a









                                                          27


special connection to the Internet.  These  connections  are
not,  however,  the  seamless web we were talking about ear-
lier, where the participating networks interoperate to allow
the  same services. Instead, these are connections of conve-
nience, which-like marriages of  the  same  sort-have  their
purposes but not a lot of other interaction.

     We  refer  to networks on the outside as outernets, but
understanding the  distinction  between  outernets  and  the
Internet can be difficult.  Because of the differing govern-
ments and languages involved in the Internet and the  outer-
nets,  there's  only  one basic service-electronic mail-that
currently can move between them. Electronic mail moves  from
the  Internet  to  the outernets through email gateways, the
connecting points that translate the different email  proto-
cols  of  each  network.  More and more of the outernets are
setting up email gateways to the  Internet.  This  worldwide
system  of  networks and gateways has been called the Matrix
or the Net. This second term is ambiguous because it doesn't
refer  to any one network, but it works well in referring to
the overall worldwide situation.  If you  hear  someone  say
that  he's  ``on the Net,'' it probably means that he can be
contacted by email. (See Chapter 3 for  details  on  sending
mail between networks).

     It's  interesting to note that many computers on outer-
nets these days have DNS names,  so  it  may  only  look  as
though  they're  connected  to  the Internet. There's a neat
feature in the DNS that allows for Mail Exchange  (MX)  com-
puters.  An MX computer is a gateway that's connected to the
Internet and that is willing  (meaning  an  arrangement  has
been  made)  to  transfer  email  to  an  outernet computer.
Instead of finding an IP address for the  outernet  computer
in the database, the DNS obtains an MX record or the name of
the Internet computer that will deliver  the  email  to  the
outernet computer. All of this should be transparent to you,
making it easier to send and receive electronic mail between
the  Internet  and  outernet  networks. Which outernets have
email gateways to the Internet? More every day, but some  of
the  well-known international networks are: FidoNet, a coop-
erative network made up of mostly microcomputers linked  via
telephone lines; BITNET (Because It's Time Network), an aca-
demic and research network; and UUCP, a network of computers
that  talk  to each other over dialup connections using UUCP
(Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol).  Commercial networks,  includ-
ing  CompuServe,  MCImail,  Genie,  and America Online, have
made connections, too.
















28

_______________________________________________________________
|              ``Enough of White Man's ASCII''                |
|                                                             |
|     Dave Hughes,  who is kind of  an  Internet  evangelist, |
|took  to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to work with a |
|group of Native American teenagers at  the  American  Indian |
|Science and Engineering Society's summer school in physics.. |
|According to Dave, the kids, who were from the Navajo, Zuni, |
|Crow, Tohono, Sioux, and Picurus Pueblo tribes, ``showed po- |
|lite, quiet interest as I explained the technology and  made |
|a  local  call  to  the  Internet  (Colorado Supernet). They |
|laughed a bit, read, and responded to email sent  especially |
|to  them  by  Dr.  George Johnston, physicist at MIT, whom I |
|asked directly to `welcome' them to the world of mathematics |
|and physics by telecom.                                      |
|                                                             |
|     ``Then I said, `enough of white man's ASCII' and start- |
|ed calling up the Indian art, the Crow Dance poetry, the new |
|pieces  by Lorri Ann Two Bulls, via modem, at 240 baud. They |
|*really* got excited!  Putting questions to me,  walking  up |
|to  look  closer  at  the full-color VGA monitor, their dark |
|eyes                                                         |
|_____________________________________________________________|

Network News

Another service available on  many  of  these  networks,  is
called  network  news.  ``News'' in the network world refers
not to current events from the newswires but to discussions,
interest  groups,  and  conferences.  There are thousands of
different discussion groups on topics ranging  from  artifi-
cial  intelligence  to  recipes,  from politics to sex, from
ornithology to skydiving-collectively generating the equiva-
lent  of some 175 books about the size of this one each day.
(That's actually about 35 Megabytes of digital information.)
News is transmitted on the USENET network, which has special
relationships and connections with some of the networks pre-
viously mentioned. For example, USENET news can be transmit-
ted across and  between  the  Internet  and  UUCP  networks,
allowing  citizens  of both cultures to participate.  USENET
is its own network, however, and no one person or  organiza-
tion  controls it. It's a huge cooperative anarchy, with 2.5
million people participating worldwide.





















                                                          29

_______________________________________________________________
|                                                             |
|laughing, smiles, and half of them standing up for the  rest |
|of  the  hour-long session. When it was over, a crowd around |
|the machine, picking up copies of the Online Access Magazine |
|and  Boardwatch  Magazine I brought, and more questions. And |
|from their  obvious  tribal  knowledge,  they  were  saying, |
|`That's  Crow, that's Sioux!' from the colors and symbols in |
|the various pieces of art.                                   |
|                                                             |
|     ``A heart-warming  session  with  40  Indian  kids  who |
|seemed to get a glimpse of a future even they could partici- |
|pate in. And if I am right, by reaching  these youth, start- |
|ing with their own `images of their inner selves' as Indians |
|produced by such technologies, they may be  better  able  to |
|move  on  into  the world of science, math, and the cold re- |
|gions of technological and white man's society, while  still |
|not  losing  their identity or associations with each other. |
|Perhaps even doing their life's work as professionals,  from |
|the reservation, thanks to these little devices.''           |
|                                                             |
|Source:  A  posting  by  Dave  Hughes  to the Consortium for |
|School Networking Discussion Forum List (COSNDISC@BITNIC) on |
|July 100,1992.                                               |
|_____________________________________________________________|
Even  though USENET is closely related to the Internet and a
lot of its traffic travels over the Internet, USENET is  not
the  Internet.  Many  people  who have access to USENET news
don't have Internet connections; similarly, Internet connec-
tivity  doesn't  always provide access to USENET news. Also,
note that USENET is a conferencing system and is not consid-
ered an email network.


Now  that  we've cleared up what the Internet is and is not,
it's time to get on with learning to use  it.  Conferencing,
email,  and  interactive  online  conversations are the most
exciting new developments in communications since the advent
of  the  telephone.  If  you think the fax machine is great,
wait until you try the Internet! With just your  fingers  on
the keyboard, you can reach around the world.


TO BE CONTINUED...

















