E-mail access to WWW & FTP & MaasInfo (pointers to documents)
Robert E. Maas rem@btr.com
The following documents are available by FTP or FTPMAIL. They tell
users with only e-mail, or with e-mail and TELNET, how to use some of
the InterNet services which would otherwise require a direct TCP/IP
connection and special client software on the user's local host.
TELNETting to a public client for WWW or Gopher is not as efficient as
having one's own local client, and doesn't provide graphics, but it's
pretty darn usable in my opinion. Requesting information by e-mail is
much less convenient than online access, but it's a lot better than not
having access at all, and for some purposes it's actually better to get
a whole file at one time by e-mail then download and view locally
rather than view one screen at a time over a modem. Accordingly, not
only users with restricted access but occasionally fully-equipped users
may find this information useful.
I am posting ONLY the e-mail access instructions for these documents.
Users with direct FTP service can easily figure out from these
instructions what to tell their FTP client programs to get these files
directly.
I plan to post the full text of several of these documents (namely
HowWWW.txt & MailFTP.txt & HowNN, and also one or another description
of the MaasInfo files and access info for them) to several regular
USENET newsgroups (some subset of news.newusers.questions &
alt.internet.access.wanted & alt.internet.services &
comp.infosystems.www.misc etc. as appropriate for each particular
document). People with NetNews access may wish to check these
newsgroups from time to time as an alternative to submitting FTPMAIL
requests or running live FTP at odd hours when the FTP host isn't
overloaded. People with only e-mail (not even NetNews), will of course
have to submit the ftpmail requests below to get the files.
-- HowWWW.txt = How to use WWW (World-Wide Web) via TELNET or E-mail:
mail ftp...@ftp.shsu.edu
open ftp.shsu.edu
cd pub/MaasInfo/
get HowWWW.txt
-- MailFTP.txt = How to get documents telling how to use FTP via E-mail:
mail ftp...@ftp.shsu.edu
open ftp.shsu.edu
cd pub/MaasInfo/
get MailFTP.txt
-- HowNN = Suggestions how to get some/more NetNews (UseNet) service:
mail ftp...@ftp.shsu.edu
open ftp.shsu.edu
cd pub/MaasInfo/
get HowNN
(The following is slightly obsolete, being superceded by the HTML
version, and so this version no longer being kept up to date:)
-- MaasInfo.Files = List & description of the MaasInfo files (toplevel
-- meta-index i.e. index of indexes, index of documents, etc.) which
-- cover most topics of general InterNet & BitNet & UseNet interest:
mail ftp...@ftp.shsu.edu
open ftp.shsu.edu
cd pub/MaasInfo/
get MaasInfo.Files
-- MaasInfo.Files.html = HTML/WWW version of MaasInfo.Files, newly
-- converted from MaasInfo.Files 1994.Nov.19, and now being kept up to
-- date to show new HTML/WWW versions of the MaasInfo indexes. This
-- file is much more convenient if you have live WWW service (local
-- client, or via TELNET), since you can just select "hot words" to
-- bring up the other files rather than manually copy&paste or re-key
-- the filenames. Even e-mail users should switch to this file because
-- it's more up-to-date than MaasInfo.Files.
mail list...@www0.cern.ch
Subject: (ignored)
www http://www.edu.tw/ftp/documents/Internet/MaasInfo/MaasInfo.Files.html
(The following file is slightly obsolete because the three main
flat-format MaasInfo files themselves are slightly obsolete, and
because all current copies of all non-obsolete MaasInfo files can be
more easily be found by following the pointers from MaasInfo.Files.html)
-- MaasInfo.FetchPub = How to get the MaasInfo files via FTP & E-mail
-- from all the archives that are known to have the current versions:
mail ftp...@ftp.shsu.edu
open ftp.shsu.edu
cd pub/MaasInfo/
get MaasInfo.FetchPub
Updates since I originally composed this announcement:
Nov.22-26 I converted MaasInfo.DocIndex to HTML/WWW format, try it:
http://www.edu.tw/ftp/documents/Internet/MaasInfo/MaasInfo.DocIndex.html
http://Pip.SHSU.Edu/ftp/MaasInfo/MaasInfo.DocIndex.html
Dec.11 I converted MaasInfo.TopIndex to HTML/WWW format, try it:
http://www.edu.tw/ftp/documents/Internet/MaasInfo/MaasInfo.TopIndex.html
(See HowWWW.txt, or the example above for getting MaasInfo.Files.html,
if you need to get MaasInfo.DocIndex.html or MaasInfo.TopIndex.html
rendered by e-mail.)
-- Getting any of the above plain-text files (not the HTML-format
-- files) from the Taiwan MaasInfo archive:
mail ftp...@ftp.edu.tw
open
mode ascii
cd /documents/Internet/MaasInfo/
get (file name, as above)
** Caution: Do that only for the plain-text, not HTML-format, files. If
you try to get an HTML-format file via ftpmail, you'll get the HTML
source, not the rendered print version. The HTML-format files are
available in legible (rendered) form ONLY from the SHSU.Edu HTTP server
(via the list...@www0.cern.ch HTML-rendering service). Of course if
you're trying to learn to write HTML-format files yourself, and want to
see samples of simple HTML source, feel free to get the source of some
of my HTML-format files. :-)
Note: I copy files to the Taiwan archive first, then they are later
automatically copied from there to the ftp.shsu.edu about once a day.
But for FTP access I list the ftp.shsu.edu archive first because it's
usually more reliable and provides faster service, whereas the Taiwan
archive frequently is full of anonymous FTP users so it won't let
another log in. If by chance you get a copy from ftp.shsu.edu that's a
few hours older than a newer master version in Taiwan it's no big loss,
not THAT much changes in just one day. But if you really must have the
very latest version that I've put anywhere for public access, then
indeed try the Taiwan archive first.
P.s. Other than HELP-NET and INFO-NETS, and maybe PACS-L & communet,
are there any other InterNet or BitNet mailing lists (not regular
UseNet newsgroups) where readers would like to see these meta-pointers
on a semi-regular rotating basis?
Note: If you saw earlier versions of this announcement posted to
INFO-NETS or HELP-NET, the major differences now are: (1) Two days ago
a link was installed in the Taiwan HTTP server to obtain access to the
FTP archive, so finally it's possible to see the very latest version on
the Taiwan copy despite all anonymous-FTP slots being full, but ONLY
via HTTP (live WWW browser, or email to&from list...@www0.cern.ch).
(2) After that I edited all the internal pointers in the parts of
MaasInfo.TopIndex.html and MaasInfo.DocIndex.html to use HTTP instead
of Gopher or FTP, so that when you browse these indexes via a live WWW
browser you don't have to worry keep trying until a FTP slot frees up,
and if you're using email to&from list...@www0.cern.ch you can follow
the pointers and always get the very latest version of the file you
want next instead of an older version on the SHSU.Edu archive. (Of
course when the Taiwan host is completely down, none of these
advantages apply. But most of the time the problem is too many
anonymous FTP users, which has now been solved.)