Appendix 1: List of selected online services · The Online World

The Online World · Chapter 19Appendix 1: List of selected online services

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============================================ To make a list of online services is difficult. Services come and go. Addresses and access numbers are constantly changed. Only one thing is certain. Some of the details below will be outdated, when you read this. Affaersdata i Stockholm AB ------------------------- P.O. Box 3188, S-103 63 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: + 46 8 736 59 19. America Online -------------- has the CNN Newsroom (Turner Educational Services), The Washington Post, the National Geographic magazine, PC World and Macworld. AOL has tailor-made graphical user interfaces for Apple, Macintosh, and PC compatible computers, and about 300.000 users (in June 1993). Sending and receiving Internet mail is possible. Contact: America Online, 8619 Westwood Center Dr., Vienna, VA 22182-2285, USA. Phone: +1-703-448-8700. APC --- The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a worldwide partnership of member networks for peace and environmental users with host computers in several countries: Alternex (Brazil). Email: support@ax.apc.org Chasque (Uruguay). Email: apoyo@chasque.apc.org ComLink e.V (Germany). Email: support@oln.comlink.apc.org Ecuanex (Ecuador). Email: intercom@ecuanex.apc.org GlasNet (Russia). Email: support@glas.apc.org GreenNet (England). Email: support@gn.apc.org Institute for Global Communications (U.S.A.), includes EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflictNet, LaborNet. Email: support@igc.apc.org Nicarao - CRIES (Nicaragua). Email: ayuda@nicarao.apc.org NordNet (Sweden). Email: support@pns.apc.org Pegasus (Australia). Email: support@peg.apc.org Web (Canada). Email: support@web.apc.org While all these services are fee based, they bring a wealth of information on environmental preservation, peace (incl. Greenpeace Press Releases), human rights, grant-making foundations, Third World Resources, United Nations Information Service, Pesticide Information Service, and more. For information about APC, write to apcadmin@igc.apc.org , or APC International Secretariat, Rua Vincente de Souza, 29, 22251-070 Rio de Janeiro, BRASIL. Fax: +55-21-286-0541. For information about the PeaceNet World News Service, which delivers news digests directly to your email box, send a request to pwn@igc.apc.org. Bergen By Byte -------------- Norwegian online service with conferences and many files. Modem tel.: +47 05 323781. PDN (Datapak) address: 0 2422 450134. Telnet: oscar.bbb.no (192.124.156.38). English-language interface available. Annual subscription rates. You can register online. Limited free usage. BIBSYS ------ Book database operated by the Norwegian universities' libraries. Send Internet mail to genserv@pollux.bibsys.no with your search word in the subject title of the message. Big Sky Telegraph ----------------- is an online community for educators, business people etc. living in rural areas in North America. Address: 710 South Atlantic, Dillon, Montana 59725, U.S.A. BITNET ------ "Because It's Time NETwork" started in 1981 as a small network for IBM computers in New York, U.S.A. Today, BITNET encompasses 3,284 host computers by academic and research institutions all over the world. It has around 243,016 users (source: Matrix News 1993) All connected hosts form a worldwide network using the NJE (Network Job Entry) protocols and with a single list of nodes. There is no single worldwide BITNET administration. Several national or regional bodies administer the network. The European part of BITNET is called EARN (European Academic Research Network), while the Canadian is called NetNorth. In Japan the name is AsiaNet. BITNET also has connections to South America. Other parts of the network have names like CAREN, ANSP, SCARNET, CEARN, GULFNET, HARNET, ECUANET, and RUNCOL. Normally, a BITNET email address looks like this: NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS The part to the left of the @-character is the users' mailbox code. The part to the right is the code of the mailbox computer. It is common for Internet users to refer to BITNET addresses like this: NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS.BITNET . To send email from the Internet to BITNET, it has to be sent through special gateway computers. On many systems, this is taken care of automatically. You type NOTRBCAT@INDYCMS.BITNET, and your mailbox system does the rest. On some systems, the user must give routing information in the BITNET address. For example, North American mail to BITNET can be sent through the gateway center CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU . To make mail to NOTRBCAT go through this gateway, its mail address must be changed as follows: NOTRBCAT%INDYCMS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Explanation: The @ in the initial address is replaced with % . Then add the gateway routing: ".BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU". If you must use a gateway in your address, always select one close to where you live. Ask your local postmaster for the correct addressing in your case. BITNET has many conferences. We call them discussion lists or mailing lists. The lists are usually administered by a computer program called LISTSERV. The dialog is based on redistribution of ordinary email by mailing lists. Consequently, it is simple for users of other networks to participate in BITNET conferences. A list of discussion lists (at present around 1,600 one-line descriptions) is available by email from LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET. Write the following command in the TEXT of your message: LIST GLOBAL NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1.BITNET and NETMONTH (from BITLIB@YALEVM.BITNET) distribute regular notices about new discussion lists. Subscribe to NEW-LIST by email to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET. Use the following command: SUB NEW-LIST Your-first-name Your-last-name This is how we usually subscribe to discussion lists. Send your subscription commands to a LISTSERV close to where you live. The command "SENDME BITNET OVERVIEW" tells LISTSERV to send more information about the services. BIX --- is operated as a joint venture between General Videotex Corp. and the North American computer magazine BYTE (McGraw-Hill). To some extent, it mirrors what you can read on paper. BIX offers global Internet email, telnet and ftp, multiple conferences. In 1992, the service had about 50,000 members. The NUA address is 0310600157878. On Internet, telnet x25.bix.com . At the Username: prompt, enter BIX as a user name. At the second Username: prompt, enter NEW if you don't already have an account on the service. You can sign up for the service, and play during your first visit to the service. Read BYTE for more information, or write to General Videotex Corporation, 1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Phone: +1-617-354-4137. BRS --- Bibliographic Retrieval Services is owned by InfoPro Technologies (see below). BRS/After Dark is a service for PC users. It can be accessed during evenings and weekends at attractive rates. InfoPro offers connection through their own network in Europe, and through the Internet. BRS contains about 120 databases within research, business, news, and science. The service's strengths are medicine and health. Membership in BRS costs US$80 per year, plus hourly database usage charges. It is also available through CompuServe (at a different price). Contact in Europe: BRS Information Technologies, Achilles House, Western Avenue, London W3 OUA, England. Tel. +44 81 993 9962. In North America: InfoPro Technologies. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. Telnet: brs.com (US$6/hr). Canada Remote Systems --------------------- is North America's largest bulletin board system (1992). It has a software library of more than 500,000 programs and files, and over 3,500 public forums and discussion areas. Canada Remote provides several news and information services, including the United Press International and Reuters news wires, North American stock exchange results, the twice-weekly edition of Newsbytes, and other publications. Tel.: +1-416-629-7000 (in the U.S.) and +1-313-963-1905 (Canada). Canada Remote Systems, 1331 Crestlawn Drive, Unit D, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4W 2P9. CGNET ----- is a network interconnecting a group of international research organizations. Besides email, CGNET provides news clipping services, airline reservation information, and database search. (See Dialcom) Contact: CGNET Services International, 1024 Hamilton Court, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. Telephone: +1-415-325-3061. Fax: 1-415-325-2313 Telex: 4900005788 (CGN UI) . CIX (England) ------------- British online-service available by telnet, through PDN services and by direct dial. Telnet cix.compulink.co.uk. Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. claims to be Europe's largest conferencing system. Sign-up fee (1993): GBP 25.00. Monthly minimum: GBP 6.25. Off-peak connect rate GBP 2.40. Peak rate is 3.60 per hour. The service has full Internet access, and email exchange with CompuServe and Dialcom. CIX has many conferences, ISDN access, Usenet News, telnet and ftp. Contact: The Compulink Information Exchange Ltd., The Sanctuary Oakhill Grove, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6DU, England. Tel.: +44-81-390- 8446. Fax: +44-81-390-6561. NUA: 2342 1330 0310. Data: +44-81-390- 1255/+44-81-390-1244. Email: cixadmin@cix.compulink.co.uk . CIX (USA) --------- The Commercial Internet eXchange is a North American association of commercial Internet providers in which they agree to carry each others' packets of mail, and more. Clarinet -------- A commercial network publishing service providing information and news in over 100 newsgroups by subject matter on Usenet. Read Chapter 9 for more information. Single-user (individual) prices available. Clarinet Communications Corp., 124 King St. North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2X8, Canada. Email: info@clarinet.com . Commercial Mail Relay Service (CMR) ----------------------------------- This service is not available anymore. They used to be available on this address: Intermail-Request@Intermail.ISI.EDU CompuServe ---------- has about 1.3 million users (August 93) all over the world, over 1,500 databases, 200 forums, 500 newspapers, online shopping from more than 100 shops and entertainment. It's like a large electronic supermarket. You can access the service though local access numbers in over 100 countries, through Packet Switching Services, and outdial services. The international NUA address is 0313299999997. A list of available forums can be retrieved from the IBM Communication Forum. Participation in forums is normally free (no extra charge). The IQuest database service gives access to more than 800 publications, databases, and indexes within business, public affairs, research, news, etc. Bibliographic and full-text searches. Some IQuest databases are physically residing on other online services, like NewsNet, Dialog, BRS, and Vu/Text (U.S.A.), Data- Star (Switzerland), DataSolve (England. It has TASS in the World Reporter database), and Questel (France). Sometimes, it is cheaper to use these services on CompuServe, than by a call to these services directly. The connect charge for CompuServe's Alternative Pricing Plan is US$12.80/hour at 1200 and 2400 bps. 9600 bps costs US$22.80/hour. Monthly subscription US$2.50. Using the Executive News Service (clipping service) costs an extra US$15/hour. An optional flat-rate pricing plan (the Standard Pricing plan) is available for US$8.95 per month. It gives unlimited access to over 30 basic services, including CompuServe mail, The Electronic Mall, news, weather and sports, member support services, reference and travel services. Hourly rates for Standard Pricing Plan members using extended services go from US$6/hour for 300 bits/s to US$16/hour for 9600 bits/s access. (Feb. 93) In addition, there are network charges. These differ a lot by country. For example, access through European CompuServe nodes has no communication surcharges during non-prime time (19:00-8:00 local time). CompuServe can be accessed by telnet to hermes.merit.edu, or 35.1.48.150. Host: CompuServe. CompuServe Information Services Inc., POB 20212, 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43220, U.S.A. In Europe, call voice: +49-89-66550-111, fax: +49-89-66 550-255 or write to CompuServe, Jahnstrasse 2, D-8025 Unterhaching b., Munich, Germany. To contact CompuServe Africa, call (012) 841-2530 in South Africa, or (+27)(12) 841-2530 for everywhere else. Cosine ------ COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe) is a European Common Market "Eureka" project. It works to establish a communications network infrastructure for scientific and industrial research institutes all over Europe. IXI is the international packet data network on which the COSINE project is based. It is available Europe-wide providing links of up to 64 Kbit/s, carries non commercial traffic for the research communities, and provides links to several public data networks. The CONCISE online information service is a focal point for information of interest to European researchers. It has lists of sources of information. Internet users can access CONCISE through Telnet. Connect either to concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi (128.214.6.181). Login: concise, password: concise. For help, send email to helpdesk@concise.level-7.co.uk with the following command in the body of the text: start help cug-email This will give you the `CONCISE User Guide - Email Access'. DASnet ------ forwards mail between systems that do not have any email exchange agreements. See description in Chapter 13. Contact: DA Systems, Inc., 1503 E. Campbell Ave., Campbell, CA 95008, U.S.A. DataArkiv --------- Major Scandinavian online service based in Sweden. Contact: DataArkiv, Box 1502, 171 29 Solna, Sweden. Fax: +46 8 828 296. Tel.: +46 8 705 13 11. Data-Star --------- Formerly owned by Radio-Suisse in Switzerland, Data-Star is now owned by Knight-Ridder (U.S.A.). It offers over 200 databases within business, science and medicine. SciSearch is a database with references to over nine million stories from 4500 newspapers and magazines. Other databases: Current Patents Fast Alert, Flightline (with stories about air transport), The Turing Institute Database on artificial intelligence, Information Access (international market data), parts of SovData, Who Owns Whom, etc.. Access through Internet: telnet to rserve.rs.ch [192.82.124.4] and login as rserve , and follow standard login procedure. Contact in North America: D-S Marketing, Inc., Suite 110, 485 Devon Park Drive, Wayne, PA 19087, Tel.: +1-215-687-6777. Contact in Scandinavia: Data-Star marketing AB, Maessans gt. 18, Box 5278, S-402 25 Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel.: +46 31 83 59 75. Delphi ------ has full access to Internet. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Dialcom ------- is owned by British Telecom and is a network of data centers in many countries. Dialcom is selling its services through many agents (like EsiStreet for the music industry, and CGNet for agricultural research). Some selected services: The Official Airline Guide, news (Financial Times Profile, Newsbytes, AP, UPI, and Reuters), mail (Dialcom400), fax services and several conference type offerings (like Campus 2000 for the education market). Today, most Dialcom users are unable to exchange mail with the Internet (DASnet is a commercial alternative), but mail can be sent to users of SprintMail, IBM Mail, AT&Ts Easylink, MCI Mail, Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana, and other X.400 systems. Contact: Dialcom, 6120 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, U.S.A. The British service Telecom-Gold is a subsidiary of Dialcom UK. In North America, contact BT North America at tel.: +1-408-922- 7543. In Europe, contact British Telecom. CGNET can be reached through the Internet. Send a message to postmaster@cgnet.com for more information. Dialog Information Services --------------------------- is owned by Knight Ridder and has more than 400 databases online. They offer a long list of newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle in full-text, Newsbytes, Information Access, the Japan Technology database, most major global news wires, Trademarkscan, USA Today, Teikoku Databank from Japan. Knowledge Index offers evening and weekend reduced-rate access to more than 100 popular full-text and bibliographic databases and 50,000 journals (1993). Dialog has gateways to other services, like CompuServe and iNet, making the databases available to a larger market. Many databases are also available on CD-ROM. In Europe, contact DIALOG Europe, P O Box 188, Oxford OX1 5AX, England. You can telnet to DIALOG.COM (192.132.3.254, US$ 3/hour in 1992). Down Jones News/Retrieval ------------------------- focuses on news for finance and business. DJN/R is the sole online distributor of The Wall Street Journal (with articles from the international editions), Barron's, Dow Jones and Telerate's newswires in full-text. Further, it has PR Newswire, many other newspapers in full- text, clipping service, online charting for investors, and gateways to other services like Info Globe (Globe and Mail in Canada). Address: P.O. Box 300, Princeton, N.J. 08543-9963. DJN/R is also accessible through a gateway from MCI Mail. You can telnet to djnr.dowjones.com . At the WHAT SERVICE PLEASE prompt, enter DJNR and press Enter. An ENTER PASSWORD prompt will appear. Here, enter your normal DJNS account password. ECHO ---- European Commission Host Organization is accessible via CONCISE. Telnet either to concise.ixi.ch (130.59.2.16) or concise.funet.fi (128.214.6.181). Login: concise, password: concise. The NUA address is 0270448112. You can also telnet to echo.lu . Login as echotest or echo. ECHO's I'M GUIDE is a free database providing information about online services within the European Common Market. It includes CD- ROMs, databases and databanks, database producers, gateways, host organizations, PTT contact points, and information brokers in Europe. ECHO's other databases are classified under the headings Research and development, Language industry, Industry and economy. For information contact: ECHO Customer Service, BP 2373, L-1023 Luxembourg. Tel.: +352 34 98 1200. Fax: +352 34 98 1234. Exec-PC Network BBS ------------------- is based in Milwaukee (Wisconsin, U.S.A.). In August 1991, it had 238 incoming phone lines, 9 gigabytes of disk capacity, more than 100 new programs/day, 300,000 programs available for downloading (including the complete selection from PC-SIG California) and more than 130,000 active messages in its conferences. More than 3,300 persons called EXEC-PC each day. The service focuses on owners of IBM compatible computers (MS/PC-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Windows, Unix), Apple Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST through over 200 conferences. You can access EXEC-PC through i-Com's outdial service, Global Access, PC-Pursuit, Connect-USA, and by direct dialing. Annual subscription costs US$60.00. You can sign on while online. Unregistered users get thirty minutes per day free. FidoNet ------- was founded in 1984 for automatic transfers of files from one place to the other at night, when the telephone rates are low. FidoNet is one of the most widespread networks in the world. It consists mainly of personal computers (IBM/Amiga/Macintosh...). FidoNet systems exchange documents by using a modem and calling another FidoNet system. Communication can be either direct to the destination system (calling long distance) or by routing a message to a local system. Each computer connected to FidoNet is called a node. There are nodes in around 70 countries. In June 1993, the net had 24,800 nodes throughout the world (source: FidoNet nodelist). The number of nodes is growing at about 40 percent per year. Most nodes are operated by volunteers, and access is free. FidoNet is believed to have over 1.56 million users (1992). Conferences (called ECHOs or Echomail) are exchanged between interested nodes, and may thus have thousands of readers. A typical FidoNet Echomail conference gets 50 to 100 messages each day. Any connected BBS may carry 50, 100, or more echomail conferences. Net Mail is the term for storing and delivering mail. FidoNet users can send and receive mail through the Internet. The list of member bulletin boards is called the Nodelist. It can be retrieved from most boards. Each node has one line on this list, like in this example: ,10,Home_of_PCQ,Warszawa,Jan_Stozek,48-22-410374,9600,V32,MNP,XA The commas are field separators. The first field (empty in this example) starts a zone, region, local net, Host, or denotes a private space (with the keyword Pvt). The second field (10) is the node number, and the third field (Home_of_PCQ) is the name for the node. The fourth field (Warszawa) is a geographical notation, and the fifth field (Jan_Stozek) is the name of the owner. The sixth field is a telephone contact number, and the other fields contain various technical information used in making connections. FidoNet has six major geographical zones: (1) North America, (2) Europe, etc., (3) Oceania, (4) America Latina, (5) Africa, (6) Asia. For information, contact the International FidoNet Association (IFNA), P.O. Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141, U.S.A. You can also write to postmaster@fidonet.fidonet.org . The FIDO subdirectory in the MSDOS directory on SIMTEL20 (on the Internet) contains extensive information, including explanation of FidoNet, guide for its nodes, gateways between FidoNet and Internet, and various programs and utilities. (See TRICKLE in Chapter 4 for more about how to get these files.) Fog City Online Information Service ----------------------------------- is the world's largest bulletin board with AIDS information. Based in San Francisco (U.S.A.) it offers free and anonymous access for everybody. Call +1-415-863-9697. Enter "AIDS" by the question "First name?" and "INFO" by the question "Last Name?". FT Profile ---------- has full-text articles from Financial Times in London, from several European databases (like the Hoppenstedt database with more than 46,000 German companies), and the Japanese database Nikkei. Profile is available through Telecom-Gold, and can also be accessed through other online services. Clipping service. CD-ROM. Contact FT Information Services at tel.: +44-71-873-3000. GEnie ----- General Electric Network for Information Exchange is GE's Consumer Information Service. GEnie gives access to many databases and other information services. It has around 350,000 users (1992). The basic rate is US$4.95/month plus connect charges. The surcharge is US$18/hour between 08:00 and 18:00, and US$6.00/hour for some services, like email, downloading of software, "chat," conferences, and multi-user games. Access to Internet email is available as a surcharged add-on service. (Addressing format: userid@GEnie.GEis.com) For information call +1-301-340-4492. GE Information Services, 401 N. Washington St., Rockville, MD 20850, U.S.A. GE Information Service Co. (GEIS) --------------------------------- Online service operated by General Electric. Available in over 32 countries. GEIS' QUIK-COMM service integrates multinational business communications for public and private mail systems. Its services include Telex Access; and QUIK-COMM to FAX, which allows users to send messages from their workstations to fax machines throughout the world. Contact: tel. +1-301-340-4485 GENIOS ------ German online service (tel.: +49 69 920 19 101). Offers information from Novosti (Moscow), data about companies in the former DDR, the Hoppenstedt business directories, and more. GlasNet ------- is an international computer network that provides lowcost telecommunications to nonprofit, nongovernment organizations throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union. Email, fax, telex, public conferences. For nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations, basic GlasNet service fees are 350 rubles/month after a one-time registration fee of 1000 rubles. This does not include faxes or telexes. (1992) Write to: GlasNet, Ulitsa Yaroslavskaya 8, Korpus 3 Room 111, 129164 Moscow, Russia. Phone: (095) 217-6182 (voice). Email: fick@glas.apc.org . Global Access ------------- is a North American outdial service (see Chapter 13) owned by G-A Technologies, Inc. It has an information BBS at +1-704-334-9030. IASNET ------ The Institute for Automated Systems Network was the first public switched network in the xUSSR. Its main goal is to provide a wide range of network services to the scientific community in the xUSSR, including access to online databases, a catalog of foreign databases, and conferencing (ADONIS). IBM Information Network ----------------------- The IBM Information Network, based in Tampa, Florida, is IBM's commercial value-added data network offering the ability to send email and data worldwide. It is one of the largest networks in the world, with operator-owned nodes in over 36 countries. To send mail from the Internet to a user of Advantis IBMmail (also called IMX or Mail Exchange), address to their userid at ibmmail.com. You need to know their userid (IEA in IBMmail terminology) in advance. An IBMmail user can find how to address to Internet by sending mail to INFORM at IBMmail with /GET INET in the body of the text. i-Com ----- offers outdial services to North America (ref. Chapter 13). Contact: i-Com, 4 Rue de Geneve B33, 1140 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2215 7130. Fax: +32 2215 8999. Modem: +32 2215 8785. ILINK (Interlink) ----------------- is a network for exchange of conferences between bulletin boards in U.S.A., Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and other countries. Infonet ------- is a privately owned vendor of packet data services with local operations in over 50 countries, and access from more than 135 countries. Contact: Infonet Services Corp., 2100 East Grand Ave., El Segundo, CA 90245, U.S.A. INTERNET -------- started as ARPANET, but is now a large group of more than 6,000 interconnected networks all over the world supporting mail, news, remote login, file transfer, and many other services. All participating hosts are using the protocol TCP/IP. There are around 1.3 million host computers with IP addresses (March 1992. Ref. RFC1296 and RFC 1181). The number of users is estimated to more than ten million people. Some one million people are said to exchange email messages daily. In addition, private enterprise networks have an estimated 1,000,000 hosts using TCP/IP (Source: Matrix News August 1993.) These offer mail exchange with the Internet, but not services such as Telnet or FTP to most parts of the Internet, and are estimated to have some 7.5 million users. Some claim that these figures are low. They believe it is possible to reach around 50 million mailboxes by email through the Internet. Several commercial companies offer full Internet services. Among these are Alternet (operated by UUNET) and PCI (operated by Performance Systems, Inc.). The UK Internet Consortium offers similar services in Great Britain. INTERNET gives users access to the ftp and telnet commands. Ftp gives them interactive access to remote computers for transferring files. Telnet gives access to a remote service for interactive dialog. The Interest Groups List of Lists is a directory of conferences available by ftp from ftp.nisc.sri.com (192.33.33.53). Log in to this host as user "anonymous." Do a 'cd' (change directory) to the "netinfo" directory, then enter the command "GET interest-groups." The list is more than 500 KB characters long. You can also get it by email from mail-server@nisc.sri.com . Write the following command in the TEXT of the message: Send netinfo/interest-groups You can telnet several bulletin boards through Internet. Here is a sample: Name Login as Description ---- ---------- ----------- CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU info World news collected by monitoring short wave broadcasts from BBS and other global sources. ISCA.ICAEN.UIOWA.EDU ISCABBS A large amount of public domain programs ATL.CALSTATE.EDU LEWISNTS Electronic newspapers and the Art World. TOLSUN.OULU.FI BOX Finnish service. English available as an option. "Internet Services Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" can be retrieved by email from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu . Write send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/faq in the body of your message. Internet -------- is a term used on something many call "WorldNet" or "The Matrix." It includes the networks in INTERNET, and a long list of networks that can send electronic mail to each other (though they may not be based on the TCP/IP protocol). The Internet includes INTERNET, BITNET, DECnet, Usenet, UUCP, PeaceNet, IGC, EARN, Uninett, FidoNet, CompuServe, Alternex (Brazil), ATT Mail, FredsNaetet (Sweden), AppleLink, GeoNet (hosts in Germany, England, U.S.A.), GreenNet, MCI Mail, MetaNet, Nicarao (Nicaragua), OTC PeaceNet/EcoNet, Pegasus (Australia), BIX, Portal, PsychNet, Telemail, TWICS (Japan), Web (Canada), The WELL, CARINET, DASnet, Janet (England) "Answers to Commonly Asked New Internet User' Questions" is available by email from SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL . Send email with the following command in the message's SUBJECT heading: RFC 1206 One important feature of the Internet is that no one is in charge. The Internet is essentially a voluntary association. Another thing is that there are rarely any additional charges for sending and receiving electronic mail (even when sending to other networks), retrieving files, or reading Usenet Newsgroups.. Intermail --------- See Commercial Mail Relay Service. Istel ----- A privately owned vendor of packet data services, who has operator- owned nodes in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Holland, Spain, Sweden, England. Contact: AT&T Istel. Tel.: 0527- 64295 (in England). Kompass Online and Kompass Europe -------------------------------- These databases are available through many services, including Affaersdata in Sweden and Dialog. Contact: (voice) +47 22 64 05 75. InfoPro Technologies -------------------- Previously Maxwell Online. InfoPro's services include BRS Online and Orbit Online. BRS owns BRS Online, BRS Colleague, BRS After Dark, and BRS Morning Search, which focus on medical information. Orbit focuses on patent and patent-related searches. Orbit carries an annual membership fee of US$50 (1992), and hourly fees that differ according to database. Contact: InfoPro Technologies, 8000 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. Maxwell Online -------------- See InfoPro Technologies. MCI Mail -------- MCI Mail, Box 1001, 1900 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, U.S.A. Mead Data Central ----------------- operates the Nexis and Lexis services. Contact: Mead Data Central International, International House, 1, St. Katharine's Way, London E1 9UN, England. TELNET lexis.meaddata.com or 192.73.216.20 or 192.73.216.21 . Terminal type = vt100a. Note: If characters do not echo back, set your terminal to "local" echo. MetaNet ------- Contact: Metasystems Design Group, 2000 North 15th Street, Suite 103, Arlington, VA 22201, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-243-6622. MIX --- A Scandinavian bulletin board network exchanging conferences. For information, call Mike's BBS in Norway at the following numbers: +47-22-416588, +47-22-410403 and +47-22-337320. Minitel ------- French videotex service, which is being marketed all over the world. It is based on a special graphics display format (Teletel), has over 13,000 services, and appears like a large French online hypermarche with more than seven million users (1992). Access to the French Minitel network is available via the Infonet international packet data network on a host-paid and chargeable account basis. Mnematics --------- Mnematics, 722 Main Street Sparkill, NY 10976-0019, U.S.A. Tel.: +1- 914-359-4546. NEC PC-VAN ---------- Japan's largest online service measured both in number of users and geographical presence. Your communications system must be able to display Japanese characters to use the service. Netnews ------- See Usenet. NewsNet ------- The world's leading vendor of full-text business and professional newsletters online. Offers access to over 700 newsletters and news services within 30 industry classification groups (1993). Includes the major international news wires. You can read individual newsletter issues, and search back issues or individual newsletters or publications within an industry classification. NewsNet's clipping service is called NewsFlash. Enter PRICES at the main command prompt for an alphabetic listing of all available services. Contact: NewsNet, 945 Haverford Rd., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, U.S.A. NIFTY-Serve ----------- is Japan's number 2 online service. It had 250,000 subscribers in January 1992. Access is possible via a gateway from CompuServe. Your communications system must be able to display Japanese characters to use the service. Nifty-Serve is jointly operated by Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai Trading in a licensing agreement with CompuServe. NWI --- Networking and World Information, Inc. One time subscription fee: US$20 (US$5 is given to charity. US$15 is returned to the user as free time). Non-prime time access costs US$10.70/hour at 300 to 2400 bps. Otherwise, the rate is US$23.50. The service is available through PDN and outdial services. (1992) Contact: NWI, 333 East River Drive, Commerce Center One, East Hartford, CT 06108, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-203-289-6585. CompuServe users can access NWI's PARTICIPATE conferences through a gateway. OCLC ---- is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization whose computer network and products link more than 15,000 libraries in 47 countries and territories. It serves all types of libraries, including public, academic, special, corporate, law, and medical libraries. Contact: OCLC, 6565 Fratz Rd., Dublin, OH, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-614-764-6000. Orbit ----- is owned by InfoPro Technologies (formerly Maxwell Online and Pergamon Orbit Infoline Inc.). It offers more than 100 science, technical and patent research, and company information databases. Contact in North America: InfoPro Technologies, 8000 West Park Drive, McClean, VA 22102, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-703-442-0900. In Europe: ORBIT Search Service, Achilles House, Western Avenue, London W3 0UA, England. Tel.: +44 1 992 3456, Fax. +44 1 993 7335. Telnet orbit.com (US$6/hr in 1992). Pergamon Financial Data Services -------------------------------- See Orbit. Polarnet -------- is a Scandinavian distributed conferencing system available through many boards, including Mike's BBS (see above). Prestel ------- is owned by British Telecom. It is a videotex service based on a special graphics display format. The service is also available as "TTY Teletype." NUA address: 02341 10020020. Prodigy ------- is a North American videotex service owned by IBM and Sears. You must have a special communications program to use the service, which claimed 2.5 million subscribers in early 1992. (Analysts estimated only 850,000 paying users). Rates: US$12.50 per family per month for up to six family members and up to 30 email messages. Annual subscription: US$ 119.95. The packet sent new users contains a communication program and a Hayes-compatible 2400 bps modem. Price: US$ 180. (early 1992) Contact: Prodigy Services Co., 445 Hamilton Ave., White Plains, NY 10601, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-914-962-0310. Email (through Internet): postmaster@inetgate.prodigy.com . RelayNet -------- Also called PcRelay-Net. An international network for exchange of email and conferences between more than 8,500 bulletin boards. The Relaynet International Message Exchange (RIME) consists of some 1,000 systems (1992). Relcom ------ means 'Russian Electronic Communications.' This company provides email, other network services, a gateway to Internet, and access to Usenet. In early 1992, RELCOM had regional nodes in 25 cities of the xUSSR connecting over 1,000 organizations or 30,000 users. RELCOM has a gateway to IASNET. Saltrod Horror Show ------------------- Odd de Presno's BBS system. Tel.: +47 370 31378. The Sierra Network ------------------ is one of the best things out there for online games. The service claimed more than 20,000 subscribers in 1993. Contact: The Sierra Network, P.O. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA 93614, U.S.A. SIGnet ------ Global BBS network with over 2500 nodes around the world (1993). SIMTEL20 Software Archives -------------------------- is a system maintained by the US Army Information System Command. It contains public domain software, shareware, documentation and mail archives under the following top-level headings: HZ100, INFO- IBMPC, MSDOS, PC-BLUE, ADA, ARCHIVES, CPM, CPMUG, PCNET, SIGM, STARS, UNIX-C, VHDL, ZSYS, MACINTOSH, MISC, and TOPS20. All files are accessible by Anonymous FTP. For information, send a message to the address LISTSERV@RPIECS.BITNET with the command 'HELP' in the first line of your text. SprintMail ---------- is a large, commercial vendor of email services. It has local nodes serving customers in 108 countries through its SprintNet network (1991). Internet mail to the SprintMail user identity 'T.Germain' can be sent to T.Germain@sprint.sprint.com . For information, contact SprintMail, 12490 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, VA 22096, U.S.A. SuperNET -------- is an international network for exchange of conferences and mail between SuperBBS bulletin board systems. Contact: SuperNet World Host through FidoNet at 2:203/310 (+46-300-41377) Lennart Odeberg. TCN --- is a Dialcom network. Internet email to TCN is only possible if either the sender or recipient has registered with DASnet. The email address would be: TCNxxx@das.net (where xxx is the TCN number). Thunderball Cave ---------------- Norwegian bulletin board connected to RelayNet. Call +47-22- 299441 or +47-22-299442. Offers Usenet News and Internet mail. Tocolo BBS ---------- Bulletin board for people with disabilities in Japan, or with "shintaishougaisha," which is the Japanese term. Call: +81-3-205- 9315. 1200 bps, 8,N,1. Your communications system must be able to display Japanese characters to use the service. TRI-P ----- International outdial service. Contact: INTEC America, Inc., 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2315, New York, NY 10020, U.S.A. In Japan, contact Intec at 2-6-10 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101. Fax: +81-3-3292-2929. TWICS BeeLINE ------------- English-language Japanese online service with PARTIcipate, Caucus and Usenet netnews. Half the users are Japanese. Others connect from U.S.A., England, Canada, Germany, France, South Africa, and Scandinavia. The NUA address is: 4406 20000524. Direct call to +81 3 3351 7905 (14,4KB/s), or +81-3-3351-8244 (9600 bps). At CONNECT, press ENTER a few times. Wait about a second between keystrokes to get to the registration prompt. New users can sign on as GUEST for information. You can also write postmaster@twics.co.jp, or send mail to TWICS/IEC, 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160, JAPAN. Foreign users have free access (1992). UMI/Data Courier ---------------- 620 South Street, Louisville, KY 40202, U.S.A. Uninett ------- delivers networking services to Norwegian research and educational services. Unison ------ North American conferencing service using PARTIcipate software. NUA address: 031105130023000. Password: US$35.00. Monthly subscription: US$6.25. Non-prime time access: US$12.00/hour. Prime time access: US$19.00/hour. Enter SIGNUP when online the first time and follow the prompts. (1991) UUCP ---- UUCP (UNIX to UNIX Copy) is a protocol, a set of files and a set of commands to copy files from one UNIX computer to another. This copying procedure is the core of the UUCP network, a loose association of systems all communicating with the UUCP protocol. UNIX computers can participate in the UUCP network (using leased line or dial-up) through any other UNIX host. The network now also has many MS-DOS and other hosts, and consisted of 16,300 hosts in January 1993 (source: UUCP map) serving more than 489,000 users. The UUCP network is based on two systems connecting to each other at specific intervals, and executing any work scheduled for either of them. For example, the system Oregano calls the system Basil once every two hours. If there's mail waiting for Oregano, Basil will send it at that time. Likewise, Oregano will at that time send any mail waiting for Basil. There are databases with connectivity information (UUCP maps), and programs (pathalias) that will help you decide the correct routing of messages. However, many UUCP hosts are not registered in the UUCP map. EUNET is a UUCP based network in Europe. JUNET is an equivalent network in Japan. There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and the Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used. Usenet ------ Usenet, Netnews, or just "News" are common terms for a large many-to-many conferencing (only) system distributed through UUCP, Internet, FidoNet, and BITNET. This grassroots driven "network" has grown out of the global university and research domains. It is a service rather than a real network. It is not an organization, and has no central authority. Usenet's newsgroups are carried by over 69,000 host computers in five continents, and has over 1,991,000 users (source: Brian Reid, 1993). Many of these hosts have access to the Internet. The European portion of Usenet is called EUNET (European Unix NET). The local administrator of each individual node in the network decides what newsgroups to receive and make available to its users. Few systems offer access to all of them. NetNews is organized in groups of 'conferences'. Each of these classifications is organized into groups and subgroups according to topic. As of June 1, 1993, there were 4500 newsgroups and 2500 regional newsgroups. Several sites are carrying over 2600 topics. The groups distributed worldwide are divided into seven broad classifications: "comp" Topics of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists, including topics in computer science, software source, and information on hardware and software systems. "sci" Discussions marked by special and usually practical knowledge, relating to research in or application of the established sciences. "misc" Groups addressing themes not easily classified under any of the other headings or which incorporate themes from multiple categories. "soc" Groups primarily addressing social issues and socializing. "talk" Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature long discussions without resolution and without appreciable amounts of generally useful information. "news" Groups concerned with the news network and software themselves. "rec" Groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational activities. Also available are many "alternative" hierarchies, like: "alt" True anarchy; anything and everything can and does appear. Subjects include sex, and privacy. "biz" Business-related groups "clari" Newsgroups gatewayed from commercial news services and other 'official' sources. (Requires payment of a fee and execution of a licence. More information by email to info@clarinet.com). Most Netnews hosts offer both global and local conferences. Many newsgroups can be read through bulletin boards, commercial online services, or through gateways from connected hosts (like from some BITNET hosts). A full list of available groups and conferences are normally available from hosts offering Netnews, and on NETNEWS servers. All users should subscribe to news.announce.important . Vu/Text ------- 325 Chestnut St., Suite 1300, Philadelphia, PA 19106, U.S.A. The Well -------- The Whole Earth Lectronic Link is a commercial online service based in Sausalito (U.S.A.). It has its own conferencing culture and is an interesting starting point for those wanting to "study" what makes the area around Silicon Valley so dynamic. The Well has several hundred conferences, public and private, about 7,000 members, and is available in a variety of ways. The service has full Internet access, and can be reached by telnet to well.sf.ca.us (or 192.132.30.2). Modem tel.: +1-415-332-6106 at 1200 bps or +1-415-332-7398 at 2400 bps. You can subscribe online. Rates: US$ 20/month plus US$ 2/hour (invoiced by the minute online - 1992). ZiffNet ------- markets its services through CompuServe (ZiffNet and ZiffNet/Mac), Prodigy, and its own online service in the U.S.A. Their offerings include the Ziff Buyer's Market, the ZiffNet/Mac Buyer's Guide, Computer Database Plus, Magazine Database Plus, NewsBytes, and the Cobb Group Online. Contact: Ziff Communications Company, 25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-617-252-5000.