Sometimes, you just don't know the name of a recipient's mailbox computer. When this is the case, start at the "top of the pyramid." Say your desired recipient lives in Germany. The ISO country code for Germany is DE (see appendix 6). Send the message
To: SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL
Subject: WHOIS DOMAIN DE
Text:
This will give you the email addresses of the main postmasters for this country. Most postmasters are willing to help, but please note that most of them are very busy people. It may take days before they get around to respond to your inquiry. There are over 100 other "whois-servers" in more than 15 countries. The systems whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.ripe.net cover Japan and Europe. The rest of them provide information about local users. (A list is available via anonymous FTP from sipb.mit.edu in the file /pub/whois/whois-servers.list . Chapter 12 has information about how to get this list by email). If your recipient is on UUCP, try netdir@mcsun.eu.net . To locate the postmaster of the mailbox system "amanpt1", use the following format (write nothing in the text):
To: netdir@mcsun.eu.net
Subject: amanpt1
Text:
BITNET provides information about connected systems through many sources. Scandinavian users use LISTSERV@FINHUTC.BITNET in Finland. Try a LISTSERV on a host closer to where you live. For example, North American users may use LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET, which is a host in North Dakota. Japanese users should write to the host LISTSERV@JPNKNU10.BITNET. When retrieving for BITNET host information mail, your search will have to be done in two steps. Here, your commands are NOT to be entered on the Subject line. Enter all commands in the TEXT field (text on the Subject line will be ignored). Example:
You want information about the BITNET computer FINHUTC (called a "node in the network"). Your first message should have the following text:
// job echo=no database search dd=rules //rules dd * search * in bitearn where node = FINHUTC index
LISTSERV sends you the following report:
> search * in bitearn where node = FINHUTC —> Database BITEARN, 1 hit.
> index Ref# Conn Nodeid Site name —— —— ——— ————- 0910 85/11 FINHUTC Helsinki University of Technology, Finland