** CHECK OUT X11 BROWSER "ViolaWWW": ANON FTP TO info.cern.ch in
/pub/www/src *** Still beta, so keep bug reports calm :-)
If you use this service frequently, please install this or any W3 browser on
your own machine (see instructions[7] ). You can configure it to start
1-7, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
You navigate the web by typing the number next to a given reference. So if you want to know more about the web, hit 2. This is another system that bears playing with.
8.7. CLIENTS, OR HOW TO SNARE MORE ON THE WEB
If you are used to plain-vanilla Unix or MS-DOS, then the way these gophers and WAISs work seems quite straightforward. But if you're used to a computer with a graphical interface, such as a Macintosh, an IBM compatible with Windows or a Next, you'll probably regard their interfaces as somewhat primitive. And even to a veteran MS-DOS user, the World-Wide Web interface is rather clunky (and some of the documents and files on the Web now use special formatting that would confuse your poor computer). There are, however, ways to integrate these services into your graphical user interface. In fact, there are now ways to tie into the Internet directly, rather than relying on whatever interface your public-access system uses, through what are known as "client" programs. These programs provide graphical interfaces for everything from ftp to the World-Wide Web. There is now a growing number of these "client" programs for everything from ftp to gopher. PSI of Reston, Va., which offers nationwide Internet access, in fact, requires its customers to use these programs. Using protocols known as SLIP and PPP, these programs communicate with the Net using the same basic data packets as much larger computers online. Beyond integration with your own computer's "desktop,'' client programs let you do more than one thing at once on the net — while you're downloading a large file in one window, you can be chatting with a friend through an Internet chat program in another. Unfortunately, using a client program can cost a lot of money. Some require you to be connected directly to the Internet through an Ethernet network for example. Others work through modem protocols, such as SLIP, but public-access sites that allow such access may charge anywhere from $25 to $200 a month extra for the service. Your system administrator can give you more information on setting up one of these connections.
8.8. WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
As the Internet grows ever more popular, its resources come under more of a strain. If you try to use gopher in the middle of the day, at least on the East Coast of the U.S., you'll sometimes notice that it takes a very long time for particular menus or database searches to come up. Sometimes, you'll even get a message that there are too many people connected to whichever service you're trying to use and so you can't get in. The only alternative is to either try again in 20 minutes or so, or wait until later in the day, when the load might be lower. When this happens in veronica, try one of the other veronica entries. When you retrieve a file through gopher, you'll sometimes be asked if you want to store it under some ludicrously long name (there go our friends the system administrators again, using 128 characters just because Unix lets them). With certain MS-DOS communications programs, if that name is longer than one line, you won't be able to backspace all the way back to the first line if you want to give it a simpler name. Backspace as far as you can. Then, when you get ready to download it to your home computer, remember that the file name will be truncated on your end, because of MS-DOS's file-naming limitations. Worse, your computer might even reject the whole thing. What to do? Instead of saving it to your home directory, mail it to yourself. It should show up in your mail by the time you exit gopher. Then, use your mail command for saving it to your home directory — at which point you can name it anything you want. Now you can download it.
8.9 FYI
David Riggins maintains a list of gophers by type and category. You can find the most recent one at the ftp site ftp.einet.net, in the pub directory. Look for a file with a name like "gopher-jewels.txt." Alternately, you can get on a mailing list to get the latest version sent to your e-mailbox automatically. Send a mail message to gopherjewelslist- request@tpis.cactus.org (yep, that first part is all one word). Leave the "subject:" line blank, and as a message, write SUBSCRIBE. Blake Gumprecht maintains a list of gopher and telnet sites related to, or run by, the government. He posts it every three weeks to the news.answers and soc.answers newsgroups on Usenet. It can also be obtained via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu, as /pub/usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers. Students at the University of Michigan's School of Information and Library Studies, recently compiled separate lists of Internet resources in 11 specific areas, from aeronautics to theater. They can be obtained via gopher at gopher.lib.umich.edu, in the "What's New and Featured Resources" menu. The Usenet newsgroups comp.infosystems.gopher and comp.infosystems.wais are places to go for technical discussions about gophers and WAISs respectively. The Interpedia project is an attempt to take gopher one step further, by creating an online repository of all of the interesting and useful information availble on the Net and from its users. To get on the mailing list for the project, send an e-mail message, with a "subject:" of "subscribe" to interpedia-request@telerama.lm.com. You can get supporting documentation for the project via anonymous ftp at ftp.lm.com in the pub/interpedia directory.