The format of this document had to be changed to fit in this hypertext so 
the change of formats is to blame for the uneven column of numbers,  not
Ed Ditto.


A Plain English Guide

to the Internet

at TVA


Ed Ditto


A Plain English Guide to the Internet at TVA


Introduction:


The "Information Superhighway" is a great buzz phrase --- you can use it to
impress your boss, your friends and neighbors, and job interviewers.



But there is truth in this much-abused metaphor.  The Internet is already
the greatest information resource ever assembled, and its potential is such
that soon anyone in the information business who is not at least familiar
with the fundamentals will be competing at a serious disadvantage.



As we face increased competition, we need to take advantage of the Internet
as another tool in our box.  But it can be difficult to understand, and
actually using the Internet at TVA can be quite a chore.  We have several
different "on-ramps", and all of them are as different as they can be.  Even
discovering them can be tough --- with as much variation from system to
system as we have, figuring out what questions to ask and who to ask them to
can be too much for a user.  This guide is designed to get you started on
your own exploration.



I certainly felt frustrated at first.  As I've gotten more educated
(although I don't think anybody ultimately can claim to be an expert) I've
come to realize that it would be a good thing for anyone who works with the
Internet to disseminate whatever information they have to whomever might need
it.  We need to help each other up the learning curve.  There are several
ways to accomplish this communication, including the Internet Users group,
e-mail, word-of-mouth, and desktop publishing.  Join in, and start spreading
what you learn.  



Information Services is doing so.  I recommend that you contact your local
IS liaison for the IS guide:  "Internet Handbook".  Since the Internet is so
large, nobody can claim to have written the "standard" guide to the Internet. 
The IS guide goes into several areas that I don't cover here: more specific
detail on hardware required for Internet access from various TVA platforms,
TSO use from the mainframe, and key IS contacts.  



And that's partially the answer to a question I've been asked frequently
since the first edition of this guide was published.  I may not work for IS,
but I certainly don't intend for this guide to be a "competing" guide.  It's
simply another source of information about the incredibly rich resources
available on the Internet.  The more people who share their Internet
knowledge within the TVA community, the better off we'll all be.



While I've got your attention,  I'd like to make a pitch for your help. 
This guide is intended to be a living document, so if you run across any
questions or issues that you'd like to see addressed, any interesting sites
that you'd like to see included, or even any feedback that you might have,
please get in touch with me at the address listed below.



This is the sixth edition of this guide, and this edition contains some new
information.  The Internet is in a constant state of flux, so that anything
committed to print about the Internet, especially with regards to the
resources available on it, will change over time.  One of the changes which
affects this guide most profoundly is the termination of USENET news services
(i.e., international discussion group access) by the University of Arizona. 
Until recently this has been an excellent site for USENET, but now TVA users
will find it necessary to gain access by different means.  I've included two
new sources for USENET in Section 5 under USENET.



This guide is now available for anonymous FTP on info.tva.gov.  It is
located in the pub/p_e_g directory.  You'll find three files there:



    readme.txt     A brief explanation of the files in the directory

    p_e_g.doc The guide in Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0 format

    p_e_g.txt The guide in DOS text format



This guide is not copyrighted, so help yourself.  For more information on
what all of this means, see Section 4:  Uploading/Downloading files through
FTP.



Thanks.  Happy surfing.



Ed Ditto

(615) 751-2223

MR2N305 in Chattanooga

aa3396@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu



Contents:  



Section Name                                                                                Page




Introduction ______________________________________ 2




1)Overview of the Internet


     1.1  What the Internet is and is not__________________  6

     1.2  The history of the Internet _____________________  6

     1.3  The future of the Internet and TVA


          1.3.1  International development__________________8

          1.3.2 Commercialization________________________8

          1.3.3 Censorship_______________________________8

          1.3.4 Security _________________________________9

          1.3.5  Bandwidth at TVA________________________10

          1.3.6  A more technical examination of "Information
Superhighway" infrastructure__________________________10

          1.3.7  About the federal government's superhighway 
development activities_______________________________ 11




2)On-Ramps


     2.1  GWINET:  TVA's link to the Internet______________12

     2.2  TCPIP/PCTCP:  Desktop links to the Internet through the TVA
gateway___________________________________________12

     2.3  Using Telnet


          2.3.1  Telnet for PC users________________________13

          2.3.2  Wang mainframe pick: "Supersession" access to the
Internet____________________________________________14

          2.3.3  Surfing the wild keyboard:  Wang terminal commands in
mainframe  mode____________________________________15

     2.4  Other terminal programs________________________16

     2.5  IS tips for remote logon using a MacIntosh_________17

  
3)E-mail

     3.1 Introduction___________________________________18

     3.2  Wang e-mail explained__________________________18

     3.3  Internet e-mail

          3.3.1  Setting up an e-mail account__________________19

          3.3.2  Sending e-mail_____________________________23

          3.3.3  Common e-mail protocols and what you will need to
 know about them_____________________________________23

     3.4  Securing your e-mail_____________________________24

     3.5  A quick word about face characters ("smileys", or whatever else
you'll see them called)__________________________________25



4)Uploading/Downloading Files Through FTP


     4.1 Introduction_____________________________________26

     4.2  Downloading files through PC DOS FTP

          4.2.1  Connecting to a remote machine______________26
          4.2.2  Browsing through a remote machine's files______27
          4.2.3  Downloading and uploading files_____________29
          4.2.4  Differences between binary (program) and ASCII (text) files,
and how to  make FTP download/upload them correctly______31
          4.2.5  Common FTP commands_____________________32

     4.3  Downloading files through Microsoft Windows using
WFTP_______________________________________________33

     4.4  Downloading files through the WANG mainframe using
FTP_________________________________________________35

     4.5  TVA's FTP sites__________________________________35

     4.6  IS tips for transferring files using a MacIntosh__________36



5)Glossary

    
Archie_________________________________________________37


    
Free-nets_______________________________________________39

    
FTP___________________________________________________40
    
Gophers________________________________________________40
    
GWINET_______________________________________________41

     Mailing lists__________________________________________42

     Mosaic and other "killer apps"____________________________43

    
TCPIP/PCTCP___________________________________________43
    
Telnet__________________________________________________44
    
USENET_______________________________________________44

Veronica:  Searching gopherspace___________________________49

     The World Wide Web (WWW) and
Hypertext______________________________________________51

     

6)Index________________________________________________53



7)Bibliography__________________________________________55


8)People, Places, and Things


     8.1  Telnet sites_______________________________________56

     8.2  FTP sites_________________________________________57

     8.3  Gophers__________________________________________57

     8.4  Mailing lists_______________________________________57

     8.5  Miscellaneous sites_________________________________58

     8.6  USENET discussion groups__________________________59

     8.7  The Help Desk and the Internet Users Groups____________60



About New Products and Services and the
Author_________________________________________________61




1) Overview of the Internet



1.1 What the Internet is and is not:



There is no formal, structured "Internet".  There is no Internet,
Incorporated, or any regulatory body which exists to administer and/or
otherwise control what goes on in the loosely joined world-wide network of
computers which is commonly referred to as "the Internet".



The Internet is computer networking made easy.  If you have the right
software on your personal computer, you have the ability to log in to a large
central computer, which will in turn will probably have the ability to log in
to many other large central computers. And this is what "accessing the
Internet" really means:  finding the way through various computer networks
into the resources that you need.

 

A good (and frequently abused) analogy for the Internet is a system of
highways.  But the highways do not link places like houses, cities, and parks
--- they link computers.  And while there is no "capital computer" on the map
through which all highways pass, there are highways which have more traffic
on them than others.  These heavily trafficked pathways generally lead to the
areas of most interest to the travelers.  If you leave your house and you
know the right turns to make, you will eventually wind up someplace that you
are interested in.



Areas of interest could include anything.  Absolutely anything.   Federal
databases, on-line keyword searches through library card catalogs, UPI and AP
news wire services, National Weather Service updates, shareware, acoustic
guitar discussion groups, Space Shuttle photography, and so on and so on. 
Given some time to explore, you too will find the places which you will want
to visit the most often.



Who pays for the Internet?  Everyone does.   There's no centralized
structure (although main groups do exist to address Internet issues:  the
Internet Architecture board, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the
Internet Society), so everyone pays for their own piece of the Internet.  For
example, the University of Tennessee pays for the UT computers which provide
service.  If you want to call that computer, you have to pay for your own
computer and phone time. 



This leads to an interesting ethic:  when using the Internet it's best to
use the avenues that are least expensive to whomever your host at the moment
is.  If you're combing the library of Congress on-line catalog from your PC
in Knoxville, you do not want to use the University of California, Berkeley's
computers to relay you to Sidney, Australia and from there into the Library
of Congress.  Use UT Knoxville's computer and go directly to the Library of
Congress.  This costs less in the long run and frees up national and
international phone lines for those who need them more urgently.



1.2 The history of the Internet:



Approximately 20 years ago, the US Department of Defense set up a computer
network called the ARPAnet, which was designed to aid military research.  In
order to minimize the vulnerability of the system, it was designed to be
decentralized; that is, a chunk of the network could be missing (bombed in a
nuclear attack, perhaps), but the remainder of the network would keep
functioning.  This assumption that the network itself would be unreliable has
turned out to be a good one; if history has taught us anything about
computers, it is that they are reliably unreliable.



The next revolution in networking occurred 10 years later, when local area
networks (LANs) began to emerge.  These networks included bulletin board
systems, mainframe-served workstations, and the like.  Our Wang system is a
good example of this kind of thing.  And in fact, dial-in mainframes became
so popular as businesses and universities came to realize the potential of
the resources they had at their fingertips, that in 1987 a contract to revamp
and upgrade the most heavily used supercomputer network in the country (which
happened to be the National Science Foundation's five supercomputer centers)
was awarded to Merit Network in partnership with IBM and MCI.



The National Science Foundation began a program which would fund university
access to its supercomputers only if universities would promise to spread the
access around.  Now, most universities and many businesses have their own
mainframe computers, and the communications which link them tend to be very
similar.  So while at one time the NSF was the "hub" of the Internet (and in
fact still acts as a franchisor of Internet access points),  now there are
millions of hubs.  These hubs are interconnected, so that if you can access
one, you can access 'em all.  



As of January of 1994, one estimate placed the number of computers linked to
the Internet at 2.2 million -- and growing at an exponential rate.  This only
counts "hub" computers, not the desktop computers which link into them.  The
following chart will give you some idea of the rate of Internet expansion.




(Note to p_e_g.txt users:  the graph shows the growth of Internet hosts from
23 in 1971 to 2.2 million in January of 1994)

Amazing, isn't it?  I read an estimate that there are over 30 million
Internet users on these machines, and my opinion is that the estimate is too
low.



1.3 The future of the Internet and TVA:



1.3.1 International development

 

If you know the right way, you can find yourself browsing through historical
archives at the University of Beijing from your desktop (of course it might
help if you read Chinese).  I have personally copied and read English
translations of KGB archive documents on groups involved in subversive
activity --- completely legally.  Many such resources are available, and more
are coming on line every day.  It doesn't take a great deal of imagination to
see the potential for future Internet activity here at TVA.   Our company's
expertise in public infrastructure management, as well as computer
technology, business services, and so on, is a competitive advantage which is
applicable around the world, and especially to developing economies.  At the
present time the spread of Internet connections is only really limited by the
state of local communications infrastructure.



TVA is currently involved in a great deal of international development, and
as this process continues the Internet will come to be relied on more and
more as a means of research and communication.



1.3.2 Commercialization



Serving the Internet can be expensive, and at the present there's not really
a way for a company or university to recover its cash investment (all other
benefits of being connected aside, of course) in equipment and phone lines. 
In the past, what little regulation of Internet activity there was came under
the auspices of the federal government.  But now, organizations like
Compuserve and Prodigy have proven that commercial network access can be very
profitable.  And inevitably, phone companies are looking at ways to make
Internet access provision pay off.  While a phone company usually sells the
phone line to the user with fairly unrestricted use, in the future it may be
necessary to order some type of Internet connection the way you might order a
cable TV hookup.



Multi-service power distributors might therefore take an active role in
Internet commercialization if and when it comes about.  Expect Internet
access to become a commercial activity when such access is recognized as a
necessity.  But it's hard to say when that will occur.



1.3.3 Censorship



It's unfortunate that irresponsible use of Internet resources by a few
limits what everyone is allowed to do.  Remember that the Internet serves the
whole world, and there are some very strange people with some very strange
tastes out there.  You will generally be able to tell when you might be
straying into a danger area...use your common sense!



A current issue in TVA's Internet administration is just exactly which areas
TVA users will be "allowed" to access by system administrators.  TVA Internet
users should be responsible enough to behave by a professional standard,
especially when using TVA's equipment and time to access the Internet.  A
good rule of thumb is that if you can make a sound business case for what you
are doing with TVA equipment and time, then it's probably OK.  Examples of
this might include taking part in an economic development discussion group,
or sending e-mail about TennCare to state representatives.  But using TVA
equipment and time to access discussion groups like alt.sex is going to land
you in hot water.  It's also going to cause system administrators to restrict
access even more.   The concept of restricted access is somewhat of a joke on
the Internet, because if a resource is there you can find a way to access it. 
But in spite of this, let's preserve the status quo.  Be careful what you're
up to.



The downside this discussion of who will be allowed to read what is that
while the discussion goes on, there's no server that will allow you to access
Internet discussion groups at all.  The baby has been thrown out with the
bathwater, so to speak.  Currently in order to keep "obscene" discussion
groups out, "wholesome" ones like sci.econ.research must be kept out as well. 
But does this mean that you can't access them at all?



No.  Censorship and ethics notwithstanding, I'm going to tell you how to
completely bypass this logjam so that you can access any discussion group on
the Internet that you want.  That way, the responsibility will be left where
it should --- with the user.  For this information, see the glossary (section
5) under USENET.



Another "censorship" issue is that of exploring.  One person's "learning
experience" is another person's "goofing off".  It's very difficult to learn
about the Internet without doing a certain amount of immediately unproductive
"surfing" of the Internet.  You have to pan a great deal of sand and gravel
before finding a gold nugget --- but the nuggets are the payoff.  If you
intend to use the Internet as a resource, you need to find areas of the
Internet which will be useful to you, which means that at some point or other
you will have to do some exploring on your own.  Just make sure that what
you're doing is clearly within your line of work, and be prepared to defend
your reasoning if you should ever have to.



1.3.4  Security



Their are troublemakers on the Internet; make no mistake about that.  Some
are harmless pranksters, some are malicious monkeywrenchers, some are
outright thieves.  All of them can wreak havoc on an unprotected system. 
TVA's system contains some very sensitive areas.  While some (such as nuclear
plant control systems) are utterly inaccessible to outsiders due to their
isolation from the Internet, others are wide-open to viruses, worms, and
inappropriate hardware use. 



So while it may be frustrating at times to have to continue dealing with
security measures, remember that it's your system and data that are at risk.



If you're storing very sensitive data files on a location where you're
worried they might be intercepted and misused, there is a military-grade
encoding program that's available free on the Internet.  Section 3.4
describes the software, and Section 4 will tell you how to download it.  This
program will code your data so that it's uncrackable by unauthorized users.



1.3.5  Bandwidth at TVA



"Bandwidth" refers to the size of the channel used to link TVA and the
Internet.  There is a finite amount of bandwith available, and while there is
no cap on the number of users who can access the connection, the more users
there are on the system at a given time, the slower the system will be.  



TVA buys "connectivity" to the Internet from SURANet, a franchisee of the
National Science Foundation (as discussed above).  TVA connects to its node,
or common point, on the Internet through a 56 kilobit per second line.  This
is a finite amount of bandwidth which must be shared by all users.  As more
users come on line, the average amount of bandwidth which is available
shrinks, so that the ultimate result is a system which runs more and more
slowly.  You have probably noticed similar slowdowns during peak usage times
on other TVA computer systems and on the phone system.  One recommendation
for Internet users is to try to conduct Internet business at other times than
between 7 AM and 7 PM, which are peak usage hours.



As business traffic builds up on the TVA - Internet connection, IS will work
to upgrade the system.  Who will pay for the upgrades?  Well, that's a
delicate point.  IS may find it necessary to require a "nominal" charge for
Internet usage in the future -- how much, I couldn't say.  I'm not sure what
"nominal" means, and I don't think anyone does at this point.  One sure way
to decrease the amount of traffic on the system is to limit exploring and
extracurricular activity.  As I've stated earlier, a certain amount of this
is constructive, but it's a fact that several people "surfing" can
drastically slow down the system for those who are working.



1.3.6  A more technical examination of "Information Superhighway"
infrastructure



Warning:  this section veers dangerously away from "Plain English". 
Unfortunately this is necessary due to the rapid pace of technology and its
effect on communications infrastructure development.  Bear with me.



Discussion about the structure of an international communications
infrastructure centers around three main areas:  "base band", "wide band" and
"broad band".  These areas of bandwidth are analogous to "lanes" on the
superhighway:  narrow being the slow lane, wide being the mid-speed lane, and
broad being the fast lane.



Base band communications are generally carried via analog signal through
existing phone lines (copper wire, coiled pair).  These communications are
typically only capable of carrying one type of signal in one direction, and
they occupy one entire channel.  An e-mail message is an example of base band
communication; text is carried via analog signal across a phone line, and it
occupies the entire channel for however long it takes to travel from sender
to receiver.  This means a simultaneous e-mail conversation isn't really
possible on one phone line, although some computer networks like Compuserve
do offer central locations for real-time chats.  They accomplish this by
using multiple lines into one bulletin board, where incoming text is
displayed.



Wide band communications are transmitted via coaxial cable, which is the
same type used to transmit cable TV.  Since a wider range of channels are
available via coaxial transmission, wide band can accommodate interactive
communications.  This band will most likely be the most common communications
avenue in the foreseeable future, as much of the infrastructure necessary to
serve wide band is already in place.



Broad band communications are carried digitally via fiber optic cable. 
Broad band can accommodate digital data, voice, and video signals
simultaneously on a multitude of channels.  Broad band currently represents
the ideal communications network to many "superhighway" developers.



1.3.7  About the federal government's superhighway development activities 



The National Information Infrastructure (NII) is a vision of the Clinton
administration, and is currently being studied by the House of
Representatives, Telecommunications Subcommittee, and Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.  The basis for NII is a high speed,
wide spread, multi-purpose network projected to be built by the private
sector at an estimated cost of between $50 - $100 billion over the next 10
years.  The federal government is investing $1.2 billion a year to promote
the development and deployment of the information technology needed for NII. 
NII will consist of thousands of interconnected, interoperable information
networks, computer systems, televisions, fax machines, telephones, and other
information appliances, software, information services, and information
databases and trained people who can build, maintain, and operate these
systems.  (From "Bandwidth and Public Policy", published by the Association
of Information Systems Professionals (DPMA))



Again we see the potential for TVA involvement in the development of a
world-wide communications network.  Our experience in public infrastructure
development and management makes us uniquely qualified to aid the NII and
other developmental organizations.  A concern at the NII is the
"egalitarianism" of information access.  It's expensive to lay fiber optic
cable; how will rural area networks pay for themselves?  It's clear that TVA
was able to solve an identical problem through its power distributor system,
and many of the lessons we learned in doing so will be applicable to
communications infrastructure development in the future.  



Other government agencies are present on the Internet:  the White House, the
Department of Commerce, the Supreme Court, and even a few members of
Congress.



2)On-Ramps



2.1 Gwinet:  TVA's link to the Internet



TVA is linked to the Internet through a "gateway" called GWINET.  GWINET is
a Sun Microsystems computer which is located in Chattanooga.  It acts as
local hub or "router" which allows users access to other hubs which are "out
there", which is why it's referred to as a gateway.  As I'll discuss further,
GWINET is available through the two most common systems of Internet access at
TVA:  the mainframe pick on the Wang system, and PCTCP on desktop computers.



GWINET is "protected" from outside security breaches by  a "firewall" known
as the "Eagle Secure Gateway".  The firewall prevents access into the TVA
system by unauthorized personnel, but it also prevents authorized personnel
from certain activities. 



One such prohibited activity is the use of Mosaic, a Windows interface
touted as the "killer Internet application" by its developers.  Unfortunately
for those concerned primarily with ease of access, Mosaic is too trusting a
program to risk use on the TVA system.  If it were possible for Mosaic to get
out of the firewall, it would be possible for unauthorized users armed with
Mosaic to get into the firewall.  However, I've been told by a Gwinet
administrator that soon Mosaic will be available to TVA employees in a secure
form.



2.2 TCPIP/PCTCP:  Desktop links to the Internet through the TVA gateway



Perhaps the easiest of the on-ramps is the Windows/TCPIP interface which is
available to TVA employees throughout the service area.  Mine was installed
on my computer when my local area network (LAN) administrator installed
Oracle's Data Browser on my hard drive.  If you have a PCTCP directory on
your hard drive, it's a good bet that you already have access to the software
you need to access the Internet and begin communicating freely around the
world.



TCPIP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. 
Transmission Control Protocol's job is to break down the information you want
to transmit (whether send or receive) into chunks which are manageable for
the network protocol to transfer and then reassemble them once they have been
transmitted.  Internet Protocol's job is to link computers together in order
to transmit information.  These two software packages work behind the scenes
to ensure that your message, job, game, et cetera gets accurately routed to
the correct recipient.



PCTCP stands for PC Transmission Control Protocol, and refers to the PC DOS
version of TCPIP.  There are versions of TCPIP for every conceivable type of
computer:  Macs, UNIX, PC, and so on.



There are two main software items for Internet communication which will be
contained in your PCTCP directory:  Telnet (tn.exe) and FTP (ftp.exe).



Last I heard, TCPIP software cost about $60 new, or $20 for an upgrade.



2.3 Using Telnet



If you want to call someone, you need a phone.  Telnet acts as the phone
when you are ready to dial the Internet.  It will let you log in to other
computers.  PC users will find Telnet in their PCTCP directories, or perhaps
as an icon on their desktops in Windows, and Wang users will find Telnet
under the supersession pick (SS) on the TVA mainframe.  In the following
example, we'll log on to the UT Knoxville library gopher.



2.3.1 Telnet for PC users:



At the c:\pctcp prompt (or for Windows users at the hostname dialog box
after double clicking on the TN icon - see below for how to create a TN
icon), enter:



    tn gwinet (simply "gwinet" if you're a windows user)



This connects your PC with the TVA gateway.  After a moment, you will see:



    Eagle Secure Gateway.



    Hostname:

                                           gwinet.cha.tva.gov  08:49:20



with a blinking cursor after the Hostname prompt.  Enter:



    library.utk.edu



to contact the UTK library gopher.  After a moment you'll see:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                        Root gopher server: gopher.lib.utk.edu



    1.  Welcome to UTK Online Library Information System (OLIS)/

    2.  About UTK Libraries/

    3.  UTK Libraries Holdings/

    4.  Other Library Catalogs & Info Systems/

    5.  Electronic Books/

    6.  Electronic Journals/

    7.  Electronic Reference/

    8.  Information by Subject/

    9.  Other Internet Resources/

    10. Other UTK Information/

    11. VERONICA: Search the World of Gopher for Information/

    12. What's New in OLIS.

    13. Search the OLIS menus <?>





    Press ? for Help, q to Quit                                        
Page: 1/1

                                           gwinet.cha.tva.gov  08:02:44



You've successfully contacted the UT library gopher and you're ready to
start exploring.



This process will be the same no matter who you're contacting, as long as
you know the correct address.  You first access the TVA Internet server,
Gwinet, and you then tell Gwinet to contact the computer with which you wish
to communicate.



To create a telnet icon on your Windows desktop, create a new program item
with the name "TN" and the command line "c:\pctcp\tn.exe".  



2.3.2 Wang mainframe pick: "Supersession" access to the Internet 



If you don't have PCTCP available on your PC, the Wang mainframe is your
only point of immediate access.  It may run more slowly than a PC, but it is
definitely better than nothing at all.  If you don't have a Wang mainframe
pick, you need to contact your local Wang administrator about getting one. 
Ask for a form 12101.  In a few days Security Administration will return a
form to you explaining your account number and some other security measures.



Once you're set up, turn your Wang on and log in.  Choose the "TVA
Mainframe" pick from your main menu screen.  The Wang will return the
mainframe main menu.  Choose:



GATEWAY   (SS)   CL/SUPERSESSION



by entering:



SS

    

at the enter selection prompt.  The mainframe will return a TVA logo screen
and will prompt you for the following information:



PLEASE ENTER LOGON INFORMATION

    USER ID....... __________

    PASSWORD...__________

    GROUP..........___________

    PROC.............___________



Enter the User ID and your Password from the memo sent to you by Security
Administration.  You will have the option to change your password.  If this
is the first time you've logged on to the mainframe, you will have to change
your password.



Once you've cleared the security hurdle, you will have three options:



_ORAMAIL

_TELNET

_TN3270



Enter a slash "/" in the blank in front of TELNET.  The Wang will return an
"ACTION CODE MENU" which will include:



S  BEGIN OR RESUME A SESSION



Enter S at the "COMMAND ===>" prompt or beside the S option.  You will then
see the "CL/SUPERSESSION MAIN MENU".



          TELNET

    LOGON DIALOG

             TVA



HOST...........................................:

TVA OR GLOBAL INTERNET..:

TERMINAL EMULATION........:

AUTO LOGIN (Y OR N).............:

    USERID........................................:(your user ID)

    PASSWORD..................................:

    TERMINAL TYPE........................:VT100



We're really only interested in the first two lines, because this is where
the Telnet session begins.  In the above example we accessed the UTK Library
Gopher through a PC.  To accomplish that through your Wang, enter



LIBRARY.UTK.EDU



at the HOST prompt, and



GLOBAL



at the TVA OR GLOBAL INTERNET prompt.  The Wang will automatically contact
Gwinet, and Gwinet will in turn relay you to the UTK Library gopher.  Soon
you will see a menu which includes:



    ROOT GOPHER SERVER:  GOPHER.LIB.UTK.EDU



1.  WELCOME TO UTK ONLINE LIBRARY INFORMATION SYSTEM (OLIS)/



and you'll know you're in.  You can repeat this mainframe login process for
any other computer attached to the Internet for which you have an address.



2.3.3 Surfing the Wild Keyboard:  Wang terminal commands in mainframe mode



The Wang keyboard functions change when you enter Supersession mode.  Here's
a list of functions as compiled by Information Services which will help you
move around in remote machines.

 



Key Pressed
Command Sent

PF1
? (help)

PF2
m (Main Menu)

PF3
u (previous menu)

PF4
q (quit)

PF5
*

PF6
* <HT>

PF7
Cursor Up

PF8
Cursor Down

PF9
Cursor

PF10
Cursor Left

PF11
Cursor Right

PF12

<ESC>*

PF13
&KP1

PF14
&KP2

PF15
&KP3

PF16
&KP4

PF17
&KP5

PF18
&KP6

PF19
b

PF20
X'20'

PF21
&KP9

PF22
&kp0

PF23
Control

PF24
Cursor

PA1
Break

PA2
&Comma

Clear
Reshow


The reason for these special key functions will become clear if you try to
navigate through menus using the arrow keys.  While the cursor on your screen
will move, this "move" command is not being transmitted to the remote
machine.  Only the PF commands above will actually signal the remote machine
that you'd like to move the cursor.



2.4  Other terminal programs



Programs such as Microsoft Terminal and other modem managers can also be
used to access any portion of the Internet which can be reached over a
standard phone line via modem.  Many local and national bulletin boards do
not have an Internet address and cannot be reached by TCP/IP.  It's necessary
to dial them up with your modem.  They are still part of the Internet,
they're simply communicate by different standards.



Unfortunately there's not space to devote to the workings of the main
terminal programs on the market such as Crosstalk, Microsoft Terminal, PC
Anywhere, and so on.  If you own one of these programs (which you do if you
are using Microsoft Windows), consult your reference manual for details.



If you don't have a modem on your desktop PC and you're interested in
getting one, all you really need is a 244PC phone.  These phones include a
"data line", which links your computer directly into a central TVA modem
pool, access to which is shared by all TVA users.  Contact your local
telephone system administrator about obtaining one.



2.5 IS tips for remote login using a MacIntosh



Information Services has published the following tips for using Telnet
through a MacIntosh.  This is a direct quote from "Internet Handbook".



Remote Login using a MacIntosh



Step 1:  Using your mouse, point to the TCP Connect II icon and click the
mouse button.  A menu bar will be displayed at the top of the window.



Step 2:  Using your mouse, point to the Terminal option on the menu, press
the mouse button, and drag the mouse down until you see the options available
under Terminal.  Continuing to hold the mouse button down, point to Connect
and then release the mouse button.



Step 3:  The Terminal Connect screen will be displayed.  It will prompt you
to enter a session name.  Type gwinet and press the enter key.



Step 4:  GWINET will establish a connection to the other computer.  Some
computers have a limited number of sessions, so you may have to try several
times before a connection is completed.  When the connection is established,
control passes from GWINET to the host computer.  The host computer will
prompt you for your User ID and password.



Step 5:  Enter your User ID and password as directed.  You are now signed
onto the other computer and working with an application that resides on that
computer.  At this point, all directions will be supplied by that
application.  Unfortunately, all applications are different, but most provide
some type of instructions.  When you are ready to terminate the session,
follow the instructions provided by the application. You may be directed to
type a q for Quit, or x for Exit, or some other command.  When you enter the
terminate command, the connection will be broken, and control will be passed
back to your computer.



Step 6:  Using the mouse, point to the button in the top left corner of the
Terminal Connect window and double click.  This will close the TCP Connect II
window.



3)E-mail



3.1 Introduction



I think it's safe to assume that the reader is familiar with the concept of
e-mail, so I won't go into it too deeply here.  Suffice it to say that the
advantages of using electronic mail over ordinary mail are enormous when one
considers the problem and expense of transmitting information quickly from
one place to another.  This of course depends on the type of information
transmitted --- there is no such thing as confidential e-mail, for example,
and a company wouldn't want to send out a slick sales brochure via e-mail. 
But for ordinary communication e-mail is a wonderful option.  It's quicker
than the post office and it's cheaper than a telephone call.  In fact, I have
been told that TVA pays a flat fee for the fiber optic line we use to access
the Internet here.  Assuming this is true, e-mail someone in the next cubicle
or e-mail Bill Clinton  (president@whitehouse.gov---according to the message
you'll get back, he doesn't read every piece of e-mail, but he does get
opinion polls based on e-mail) and it's going to cost the same amount.  The
more you use this system, the more value TVA gets for its money in the long
run.



3.2 Wang e-mail explained



It is indeed possible to send e-mail from the Internet to a TVA Wang
mailbox.  There are several memos circulating to this effect, but following
the procedures in these memos can be quite confusing, and I have personally
not been able to get a couple of the processes described in them to work. 
However, there is one that does.



A Wang Internet address follows this form:



    tva!wang#.wang@mhs.attmail.com



where wang# is the first fifteen digits of the Wang ID number for the box
being addressed.  On some Wang systems, your Wang ID number may be found by
choosing from the Wang Office menu, in order:



    User administration

    User profile



and looking under:



    User ID



On other systems, you may find your Wang ID number by choosing from the
master menu, in order:



    Wang office defaults

    Display user defaults



and looking under:



    User ID



The first fifteen digits of your user ID are your Wang number for Internet
e-mail purposes. My number is 00113 00001 00306 01417, so that my Internet
address would be:



    tva!001130000100306.wang@mhs.attmail.com



That's all.  It's that simple.  In order to test this I sent myself two
different messages from locations on the Internet, and it took approximately
7 minutes for them to get through.  I suspect that this was slower than
usual, but still much faster (and cheaper) than a fax, overnight package, or
US Mail.



With this address you can receive e-mail from just about anywhere on the
Internet directly to your own Wang mailbox.  The drawback is that you cannot
originate Internet e-mail from your Wang mailbox unless someone outside the
system has first sent you something.  Once they have, however, you can keep
their mail in your box and reply to it all day long without having to worry
about what their e-mail address is.



3.3 Internet e-mail



3.3.1 Setting up an e-mail account



There are plenty of places which offer e-mail accounts:  Prodigy and
Compuserve are examples.  I'd like to walk you through setting up an e-mail
account on the Lorain County Free-net.  If you'd like to know more about just
what exactly a free-net is, see the glossary (section 5).  I'm going to
assume you're using the TCPIP/PCTCP system from your PC rather than the Wang
mainframe pick, although the processes are virtually identical.



I've chosen the Lorain County Free-Net (LCFN) because I've found it to be
very convenient to use personally.  You may try several and decide you like
another one.  All free-nets that I've explored have more or less the same
guest registration procedure, so this one will serve as a good guide.



Let's start by assuming that you don't have Microsoft Windows.  In your
PCTCP directory you will have several key executable files (.exe), which will
include ftp.exe and tn.exe.  For the moment, tn.exe, or "telnet" is what we
want to concentrate on.



Telnet allows you to "call" a host computer, which in this case will be
"gwinet", as we've discussed earlier.  Typing:



    tn gwinet



at the "c:\pctcp" prompt will bring up the following lines:



    FTP Software PC/TCP tn Version 2.2  02/25/93 18:05

    Copyright (c) 1986-1993 by FTP Software, Inc.  All rights reserved.

    Escape character is ALT-F10 or F10



    Eagle Secure Gateway.



    Hostname:



The first two lines describe the PCTCP software which you are using and the
date.  Remember ALT-F10, as this escape key will probably come in handy at
some point.  The Eagle Secure Gateway refers to gwinet, and the hostname is
the computer which you will be using gwinet to access.



This procedure will be even easier if you use Windows and have a "TN" icon
somewhere in your program manager (and if you don't, create one with the
command line "c:\pctcp\tn.exe").  Double clicking on the "TN" icon will bring
up a dialog box which will ask you for "parameters".  Entering:



    gwinet



will bring up the hostname screen shown above.



At the "Hostname:" prompt, enter:



    freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu



This address is analogous to the phone number of LCFN, and Telnet will use
this information to link your computer with LCFN.  After a brief delay you
will see:



    SunOS UNIX (freenet)



    login:  



Telnet has contacted LCFN, and LCFN is asking you to identify yourself. 
Since you are a first time user, enter:



    guest



LCFN will respond:



    Last login: Tue Feb 22 08:16:54 from suncube.ccs.ortn

    SunOS Release 4.1.1 (LCFN) #1: Sat Jan 23 15:43:35 EST 1993

    Type dec-vt220 unknown

    TERM = (unknown)



LCFN is asking you to identify your terminal settings.  If you're using a
TVA PC to access LCFN, you will most likely be using the VT220 terminal
emulation, which LCFN does not support.  You will still be able to type, but
you will not have full access to the editing and hot keys which you would if
LCFN supported the VT220 emulation.



Enter:



    vt220



at the command prompt.  This will let LCFN know that you are using an
unsupported terminal.  (Note:  entering vt100, ASCII, et cetera will also
work, although you may find that your keyboard behaves strangely at times). 
LCFN will then return a welcome message:



                                        WELCOME



    As a visitor to this system you are allowed to go anywhere and read
anything

    available.  However, posting messages, sending or receiving electronic
mail,

    using the chat area or accessing certain other features like telneting

    requires you to be a Registered User.  Please review the Registration

    Information located under the Administration Center (type go register).



    The registration process costs $5.00 (voluntary contribution).  Vanity

    identification accounts are also available. You are limited to one hour
per

    visit.  There presently is no limit on the number of visits you can make
per

    day.



    Thank you for visiting the system.  We hope you will become a registered
user

    and that you visit us often.



    Paul Boguski, Executive Director, LCFN

    End of File, Press RETURN to quit

                                             gwinet.cha.tva.gov  15:04:18



You may also run into another screen which updates you about possible
downtime for the system, or other important system news.  Simply follow the
appropriate instructions on the screen,  Finally, you will wind up at the
following screen:



                              LORAIN COUNTY FREE-NET

                                       Main Menu



         1 Administration Center  (go admin)

         2 Civic Center           (go civic)

         3 Commerce Center        (go commerce)

         4 Communication Center   (go cc)

         5 Community Center       (go community)

         6 Computer Center        (go computer)

         7 Education Center       (go education)

         8 Health Center          (go health)

         9 Help Center            (go help)

         10 Human Services Center (go human)

         11 Library Center        (go library)

         12 Natural Resources

          and Agricultural Center (go natural)

         13 Academy 1



     m=Main Menu    |    p=Previous Menu    |    h=Help    |    x=Exit
FreePort



    Your Choice ==>



Note the menu items.  Most free-nets will be laid out like towns, with a
"center", "building", or "street" for each general area of interest.  Also
note the "go" options.  These are jump commands - typing "go health", for
example, will take you to the Health Center from anywhere in the system.



At this point, you can choose to explore the free-net services, bearing in
mind that you will not have full access, or you can go ahead and register. 
Entering:



    go register



will shortcut you to the registration process.



You will be at this screen:



              LORAIN COUNTY FREE-NET

    

              Registration Menu



      1 Voice Mail or U.S. Postal Service Registration

      2 Print Out Registration Agreement - (Capture or Log file required)

      3 Vanity Identification Numbers Available

      4 Donor Account Available



      m=Main Menu    |    p=Previous Menu    |    h=Help    |    x=Exit
FreePort





    Your Choice ==>



                                          gwinet.cha.tva.gov  15:21:03



This is a good time to sit back and follow the directions on the screen. 
Option 1:  Voice mail or U.S. Postal Service Registration is probably the
most convenient at this point.  When I registered on this free-net, it took
about two weeks for them to get my account set up.  I passed the time by
exploring the free-net on a "guest" account, and I was able to find some good
stuff.



If you're using a Windows 3.1 icon for Telnet, it is possible to "edit mark"
and "edit copy" sections of the document you are scrolling through.  You can
then paste them to your clipboard or notepad and print the document.  In this
case this might be quicker than waiting on the US Postal Service to deliver
your registration form.  It's also possible to copy from the clipboard,
notepad, or another word processor to the Telnet window;  this will make it a
lot easier to write e-mail.



Once you've got notification of your account back in the mail, you will be
ready to start managing your own e-mail box.  



3.3.2 Sending e-mail



The e-mail process at the Lorain County Free-net is self-explanatory.  The
jump command is "go post", and the "send e-mail" command is #2 on the menu.



You will be prompted for a destination address.  E-mail addresses take the
form of:



    "name@domain", or for example, "aa3396@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu"



which means "send mail to box # aa3396 at freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu".  This
is the mailing address.  There are a great many types of domains, depending
on the mail server that is handling.



E-mail addresses can also take the form of four numbers between 1 and 256,
such as:



    121.56.241.27



3.3.3 Common e-mail protocols and what you will need to know about them



Your e-mail server might have problems routing e-mail if the mailing address
does not fall within the parameters it knows.  The following are some of the
more common parameters and what you can do to ensure that they get where you
want them to go.



Bitnet addresses will usually appear in the form of:



    name@host.bitnet



Try changing this form to:



    name%host@cunyvm.cuny.edu



Cunyvm.cuny.edu is a Bitnet-Internet gateway, or a machine which acts as an
interpreter from Bitnet to Internet.  Routing through this gateway places
your e-mail in a form that Bitnet can understand.



Compuserve addresses follow this form:



    12345,678



Change this to:



    12345.678@compuserve.com



Compuserve.com is another gateway, or interpreter.





Sprintmail addresses look like:



    "FIRSTNAME LASTNAME"/HOSTNAME/TELEMAIL/US



Try changing this to:



    /PN=firstname lastname/O=hostname/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com



MCImail addresses might look one of two ways:



    1234567



or



    firstname lastname



Whichever you have, address the mail to:



    1234567@mcimail.com



or



    firstname_lastname@mcimail.com



3.4  Securing your e-mail



If you have information of a sensitive nature that you need to transmit to
someone electronically, are you stuck?  Not at all.  While it is possible for
unauthorized users to intercept e-mail transmissions, it is also possible for
the sender to encrypt e-mail so that it can't be read if it's intercepted. 



"Pretty Good Privacy" is a military grade encryption program which is
available on the Internet for free downloading.  The encryption technology
relies on 150-digit prime number factoring, which is tech-ese for an
algorithm so hellishly complex that it's practically impossible to
descramble.  The program is used much like a compression program called
PKZip.  You simply tell the program to encrypt or decrypt a text file.  If
you're encrypting so you can send e-mail, the program asks for you for a
keyword on which it will base the encryption algorithm.  If you're decrypting
after you've received e-mail, the program asks you for the keyword -- and if
you don't have it the program will not decrypt the text file.



This program is based on such sensitive technology that the federal
government ruled that the author could not export the program based on
federal International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which specifically
ban the export of some encryption algorithms.  The author didn't actively
export the program, but he or an associate placed the program on an anonymous
FTP site so that anyone with Internet access could get a copy -- including
those users from outside the United States.  Was this exportation?  Did the
author break the law?  Well, his favorite pastime is no longer writing
encryption software.  He is now busily preparing his legal defense.  This has
stirred up a new debate -- how can any one government try to control what is
rightfully an international community?



PGP is available for anonymous FTP from:



    pc.usl.edu



under the file name



    pub/msdos/crypto/pgp23.zip



Section 4 shows how to use FTP to download files.  You will also need a copy
of PKZip in order to decompress this file once you've downloaded it.  It has
been compressed so that it will take less time to transmit than it would
otherwise.



PGP comes with a good manual, so I'm not going to go into how to use it.  I
have tested it, however.  I encrypted a text file and then tried to open the
file with Word 6.  Not only couldn't I open the file, but my entire system
crashed.  I was impressed.



3.5 A quick word about face characters ("smileys" or whatever else you'll
see them called)



Even in the most stuffy and academic of places on the Internet you will
occasionally run into smileys like:



    :  )



and so on.  Read sideways, you can see a smiley face.  Cute,  right?  They
are at first, but having plowed through about ten million of these cute
things, I can tell you that I wish their inventor had been struck by
lightning. 



    ;  )



See?  A wink.  This character conveys sarcasm.  Smileys came about as an
attempt to convey emotional context through written media, which can be a
difficult job.  There are a whole lot of different ones out there...I'll
leave you with the most bizarre one I've encountered so far.



    : P*******O



That's a baby drooling into a puddle on the floor.  I warned you.

  



4)Uploading/Downloading Files Through FTP



4.1 Introduction



FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol, is really where the phrase
"Information Superhighway" begins to take on its true meaning.  There is a
staggering amount of information available on the Internet free for the
taking (in Internet slang, "via anonymous ftp").  I have downloaded or have
seen downloaded:



-30 minute old weather satellite images

-Federal documents like NAFTA, the Clinton Healthcare plan, the Brady Bill,
and the 1995 Federal Budget proposal

-Free software like an upgrade to Microsoft Word 6.0A (which cured a bunch
of bugs in 6.0 that were making my life miserable), Mosaic, and Distinct

-Electronic magazines on subjects of interest such as the environment

-Maps of the surface of Venus

-.GIF images of Bill Clinton

-KGB archive files.



There is much, much more.  Lists like this could go on forever; the best way
to find what you want is again the Columbus method.  Sail thataway!



When using FTP you must be careful to remember that there are as many
protocols in which information can be stored as there are types of
information.  You will run across the main ones like .BMP, .GIF, ASCII, .TXT,
and ZIP.  By the way, it is very helpful to keep a copy of PKZip on your
computer...you will probably be using it a lot.



4.2 Downloading files through PC DOS FTP:



4.2.1 Connecting to a remote machine:



At the c:\pctcp prompt type



    ftp remote-machine-name



where remote-machine-name is the machine you're trying to link up to.  If
you work for TVA, it will always be "gwinet".  If you were to enter "ftp
gwinet", you would see:



    C:\PCTCP>ftp gwinet

    FTP Software PC/TCP File Transfer Program Version 2.2  02/25/93 18:05

    Copyright (c) 1986-1993 by FTP Software, Inc.  All rights reserved.

    FTP Trying...Open

    220 Secure Gateway FTP server (Version 5.60) ready.

    Userid for logging in on gwinet.cha.tva.gov?



At this point you will need to enter the address of the computer you are
trying to log on to.  In this case it might be "ftp.fedworld.gov", which is
the address of "Fedworld", the federal government's repository for files like
NAFTA and the Health Care Act.  You will need to enter:



    anonymous@ftp.fedworld.gov



which means that you are trying to anonymously log into Fedworld's machine. 
You will then see:



    331 Anonymous Login OK, send id as password.

    Password for logging in as anonymous@ftp.fedworld.gov on
gwinet.cha.tva.gov?



The computer is asking for some kind of ID which will allow Fedworld
administrators to contact you if necessary.  You can enter your Internet
address, your name, your telephone number, et cetera.  Logging on with
gibberish is possible, but I don't recommend it.  After you enter your ID,
ftp will return:



    You are currently logged into FTP server FEDWORLD, as user ANONYMOUS.

    Your full login name is Anonymous (FTP).



    The date is Mon Mar 21, 1994, and the time is 10:25:19.

    Your access is Readonly.



    If you enter the directory MAIN you will find the file LIBS.  This file

    is a listing of all directories and there contents.  Each directory has

    a file called FILES that lists the files, file sizes and file
descriptions

    within that directory.  If you have any problems please call the
Fedworld

    help desk



    *************   FedWorld help desk number 703-487-4608  
****************

    *************   Connect to FedWorld at    703-321-8020  
****************

    *************   Connect via Internet at   FEDWORLD.GOV  
****************

    *************   Connect via IP address    192.239.92.201
****************



    The maximum connect time limit is 20 minutes, with 20

    minutes remaining. The maximum idle time is 4.

    ==============================================================



    ftp:gwinet.cha.tva.gov>



The "ftp:gwinet.cha.tva.gov" prompt is much like a c: prompt on your hard
drive, except that you are now logged in to the remote machine's hard drive,
after a manner of speaking.  



4.2.2  Browsing through a remote machine's files



It's possible to browse through a remote machine's files almost exactly as
you would browse through your own machine's hard drive.   Entering



    dir



will return a directory of the remote machine you are connected with.  In
the case of Fedworld, this would return something like:



    512 Mar  4 94 08:29  commerce

    512 Mar  4 94 08:31  ctn

    512 Mar  4 94 08:31  gateway

    512 Mar  2 94 10:22  hlthact

    512 Mar  2 94 10:22  hlthrpt

    512 Mar  3 94 15:30  images

    1638 Feb 28 94 17:24  intro.ftp

    512 Mar 20 94 03:50  jobs

    512 Mar 20 94 03:53  main

    512 Mar 10 94 11:35  media

    512 Mar 17 94 08:50  misc

    512 Mar  7 94 03:37  modil

    512 Mar  2 94 10:22  nafta

    512 Mar  2 94 10:22  nii

    512 Mar 20 94 10:59  npr

    512 Mar 17 94 08:50  ntis

    512 Mar  4 94 08:31  ota-pres

    512 Mar 16 94 17:03  patent

    512 Mar 20 94 15:27  pbsrch

    512 Mar 18 94 03:38  results

    512 Mar 20 94 19:47  sat-imgs

    512 Mar 21 94 09:04  w-house



This would be on the right side of the screen, while some information used
by the Fedworld administrators will appear on the left side.  The names in
the right-hand column are the names of the directories through which you can
browse.  The command:



    dir media



will return a directory of the directories and files contained in the
"media" directory.  The bottom part of list would resemble:



    2460 Feb 10 93 09:58  ta311.txt

    1933 Feb 17 93 11:01  ta312.txt

    1977 Feb 25 93 13:44  ta313.txt

    1950 Mar 29 93 16:45  ta316.txt

    1615 Apr  9 93 13:00  ta317.txt

    1440 Aug  6 93 13:56  ta318.txt

    2226 Jun 17 93 16:10  ta319.txt

    2479 Jun 17 93 16:13  ta320.txt

    1834 Jun 17 93 16:19  ta323.txt

    2272 Jul 23 93 11:46  ta324.txt

    1633 Jul 23 93 11:46  ta325.txt

    1831 Jul 19 93 18:06  ta326.txt

    1721 Jul 19 93 18:06  ta329.txt

    1887 Jul 19 93 18:06  ta330.txt

    2086 Aug 10 93 15:35  ta331.txt

    2269 Jul 19 93 18:09  ta332.txt

    4484 Nov 29 93 05:50  ta333.txt

    4894 Nov 29 93 05:51  ta334.txt

    3688 Nov 29 93 05:46  ta401.txt

    1995 Nov 29 93 05:48  ta402.txt

    2285 Nov  3 93 19:56  ta404.txt

    5633 Mar 20 94 03:43  topfiles



This is a partial list of the files available in this directory. 
Incidentally, using the "ctrl-s" keystroke combination will stop the screen
scrolling so that you get a chance to read the files at the top of the list
as well.  Pressing "enter" will then continue the scrolling.



Browsing can be a complicated thing:  directories contain directories which
contain directories which...you get the picture.  A command you might try if
you want to exhaustively search all the directories of a remote machine is 



    dir -1R



which lists all directories, then all directories in those directories, and
so on and on.  This command will only work if the computer into which you've
logged runs UNIX.



Most databases like this will contain a file called "index", "contents", or
"readme".  These files are usually plain English indexes to the files
contained in the same directory as the index file.  In the next section,
we'll download and read one of those index files.



4.2.3 Downloading and uploading files:



The get and put commands allow you to download, or get, and upload, or put
files.  When you're logged on to a remote machine anonymously, you will
generally not be allowed to upload files, although you'll be allowed to
download files for as long as the machine will allow you to remain logged in. 
Most anonymous ftp sites do set time limits.



In order to download the index file to the media directory at Fedworld, at
the ftp:gwinet.cha.tva.gov prompt you would enter:



    get directory/filename



where directory/filename is the directory location and filename of what you
are trying to download.  In our example the command you would enter would be:



    get media/index



Fedworld would return:



    local file (default index):



You are being asked for the location you would like to download the file to. 
Anywhere on your hard drive or on a floppy drive is acceptable.  I keep a
special directory on my c: drive which I use expressly for downloading:  it's
called c:\internet.  If you had a directory with this name on your hard
drive, you would enter:



    c:\internet\index



And the downloading would commence.  This file is relatively small, so in a
few seconds you would see:



    Transferred 11119 bytes in 5 seconds (17790 bits/sec, 2223 bytes/sec)

    226 Transfer complete

    ftp:gwinet.cha.tva.gov>



You now have the file "index" stored on your hard drive in the location
where you placed it.  If you'd like to read the file, log out of Fedworld by
entering:



    quit



and you will find yourself back at the c:\pctcp prompt.  You can then open
your file using your favorite word processor, the DOS editor, or the type
command.  When you open the file it should resemble:



    INDEX FOR LIB MEDIA   NTIS media announcements (See bulletin)   Page 1



     Keyword         Filename              Description

    ----------------  ------------  -------------------------------

    acid              IBULLG.       Acid Rain Data Systems

    aids              HBULLV.     AIDS Prevention in Dental Offices

    banks           HBULLQ.     Recommendations for Safer Banks

    broadcast     IBULLS.       Foreign Broadcast Information Service

    business       IBULLR.       Polymer Composites for Small Business

    canada         HBULLZ.      US/Canada SIC Code Index

    cases            HBULLC.      Tracking EPA Civil Cases

    catalog         HBULLS.      Catalog of Federal Technologies

    catalog         IBULLN.       Catalog to NIST publications

    catalog         IBULLO.       Catalog Lists 1,000 Govt Inventions

    catalog         IBULLP.       DoD Library Cataloges on CD-ROM

    cia                HBULLN.      CIA Atlas of Eastern Europe





And so on and on.  I haven't reproduced the entire list here because it
would probably run on for several pages.  You now know what files exist in
the media directory in Fedworld.  If you repeat the ftp process and download
one of these files, you will be able to use it at your desktop from your hard
drive.



"Putting" a file is more or less the same.  Entering:



    put directory\filename



uploads a file to the remote machine with which you are communicating. 



It is important to note that FTP requires the use of slashes:



    /



as opposed to backslashes (which are common DOS parlance):



    \



A subtle difference, but the use of backslashes in file names will cause
error messages.



4.2.4 Differences between binary (program) and ASCII (text) files, and how
to make FTP download/upload them correctly:



FTP assumes that you are transferring ASCII files unless you tell it
differently.  ASCII files are based on a standard set of characters, which
will not change much from system to system.  If when attempting to run or
read a file you have just downloaded you see a message that says something
like "unable to understand this file" or "file type error", et cetera, you
have probably downloaded the file in the wrong format, although it is
possible that you have correctly downloaded a file that your machine simply
cannot understand, like a MacIntosh file.



Binary files are in "machine language" and are generally program files,
although they may be graphics, spreadsheets, et cetera.  In order to download
a binary file in our Fedworld example, at the ftp:gwinet.cha.tva.gov> prompt
enter:



    binary



The machine will respond:



    Type set to I, binary transfer mode



It is now ready to transfer a binary file.  To download one you would enter:



    get directory\filename



where directory/filename is the directory location and filename of the file
you are trying to download, and you will begin the now-familiar FTP process. 
When you are ready to transfer another ASCII file, enter



    ascii



and the machine will respond:



    Type set to A, ASCII transfer mode



You are back to square 1.  At this point you can continue to browse and
download as you wish.  



Common file formats and the protocols you should use to up/download them
include:



    text files                         ASCII

    bitmaps, gif files, and other graphics       binary

    .exe files                         binary

    .zip and other compressed files              binary

    program source code                ASCII



Remember that it's good to get familiar with PKZip before you do too much
downloading, because you are probably going to need it, especially when you
start downloading large programs.



4.2.5 Common FTP commands



If you enter:



    help



at the c:\pctcp\ftp prompt, FTP will return the following list:



    Available commands are:

    !       ?       acct    append  ascii   binary  bye     cd      debug  
delete

    dir     drive   exit    fcd     fdir    fpwd    get     help    iget   
image

    iput    lcd     ldir    lmkdir  local   login   lpwd    ls      mdelete
mget

    mkdir   mput    option  parent  passive put     pwd     quit    quote  
rename

    retrieve        rmdir   send    server  show    stat    store   take   
tenex

    tget    tput    type    user    verbose version



These are some more advanced FTP commands, and I'll go through the most
common ones briefly here.



acct information-- a function which is sometimes necessary for giving
additional account or security information

ascii -- enter ASCII transfer mode, as discussed above

bye -- log off

cd remote-directory -- just as in DOS, a command to change directories

delete filename -- same as the DOS command;  wipe out a file

dir file destination -- as discussed above, show the contents of the
specified directory

exit -- quit

get -- download a file

help command -- gets information about a specific command

lcd directory -- changes the default directory on your local machine to the
named directory

lmkdir new directory name -- makes a new directory on your local drive

mdelete file-list -- deletes multiple files from the remote machine.  DOS
"*.*" type wildcards may be used.

mget file-list -- downloads multiple files from the remote machine.  DOS
"*.*" type wildcards may be used.

mput file-list -- uploads multiple files to the remote machine.  DOS "*.*"
type wildcards may be used.

put file -- uploads single files to the remote machine.

pwd -- prints the name of the current remote directory

quit -- closes open connections and shuts down FTP

rename -- changes the name of a selected file



Generally, publicly accessible files will be available in a "pub" directory
on whatever server you're browsing through.  Most servers are good about
having "index" or "readme" files which will spell out file locations and
other important server information.



4.3 Downloading files through Microsoft Windows using WFTP:



WFTP is a snap.  If you have a wftp.exe file in your PCTCP directory you'll
be downloading files in less than two minutes.  If the icon shows up on your
desktop somewhere, double click to open it.  If not, create a new program
item with the name "WFTP" and the command line "c:\pctcp\wftp.exe".  Double
click on the icon when it appears.  You'll get a program window which will
resemble your file manager. 



WFTP has four menu items:  Session, settings, commands, and help.



The Session menu is where you either establish new connections, save current
connections, or reopen old connections.  A "connection" or a "session"
includes a table of vital information about a computer which you wish to log
in to.  Once this table is set up, you can tell your computer to connect with
the remote computer and communication will begin automatically.  Choose "new"
from this menu and you will be prompted to fill in the following blanks (and
for this example we'll also be using Fedworld, just like above):



    Host name or address:

    Username:

    Password:

    Account:

    Port Number:



You'll want to enter the following (disregarding the words in italics and
the parenthetical statements):

    

    Host name or address:  gwinet      (the TVA gateway computer)

    Username:  username@host      (in this case, anonymous@ftp.fedworld.gov)

    Password:  your password      (here, whatever your contact information
is, as                             discussed above)

    Account:  your account #      (You usually won't need one)

    Port Number:   21             (WFTP should fill this blank in
automatically;                                    if not a good guess is 21)



When you get this data entered, you will be able to connect with the remote
computer.  Hitting the "connect" button should accomplish this.



When you are connected, you will see that you have two columns of file
information.  The one on the left, labeled "local system" is your file
directory, and will most likely be on your c: drive.  The one on the right,
labeled "remote directory" is the file directory of the remote computer. 
Above the local directory window will be a command status window, which
should now read "ready for new remote command".  Between the local and remote
directory windows should be a mode box, with buttons for ASCII, binary, and
local 8 transfer.



You can browse through the remote directory simply by pointing and clicking
your mouse.  To enter a subdirectory simply double click on it.  To return to
the previous directory, double click on the two dots ".." which will appear
above the list of directories and files within the current directory.



When you have found a file you are ready to transfer, single click on it. 
The copy arrow will appear between the two directory windows in black.  It
should be pointing away from the file you just clicked on, towards the
location into which you wish to copy the file.  You also have some other
options which are pretty run of the mill, like delete, rename, show, and
help. 

This is a good point to double check the mode box:  are you trying to
transfer an ASCII file, a binary file, or a local 8 file (whatever that
is...I've never used it).  Then clicking the copy box will bring up a
dialogue box asking you to name the destination file.



You might enter:



    c:\internet\nafta.txt



just for example.  Copy the file to anywhere you want and name it whatever
you want -- as long as your chosen name corresponds to DOS rules.



The settings menu contains the functions which define the display of the
information in the local and remote file directory boxes.  These menu items
are similar to the ones you have in your file manager, and I won't go into
them in any detail.  The only two which are roughly different are general and
host type.



"General" brings up the dialogue box we saw earlier which lists the vital
information about the remote location.  "Host type" allows you to target
specific types of remote operating systems:  UNIX, VMS, DOS, OS/2, et cetera. 
"Plain" will usually take you where you want to go.



The commands menu duplicates some commands of your file manager.  Within
WFTP you have the ability to change and create local and remote directories. 
The commands menu also includes the "start remote login sequence" command,
which duplicates the function of the "connect" button in the vital
information box discussed earlier.



When you are ready to terminate a session, choose "save" from the session
menu.  You will be allowed to save the "vital information" that you have
compiled under a name you create.  Interestingly, you're not limited to the
seven-character name demanded by DOS.  I usually save a session by the name
of the remote computer;  I've got ftp.fedworld.gov saved as "Fedworld".  The
next time you're ready to log in to a computer you've connected with in the
past, choose "open" and double click on the appropriate name.  The connection
with that computer will occur automatically.



4.4 Downloading files through the WANG mainframe using FTP:



In section 2.3.2 we looked at using the Supersession pick on the Wang
mainframe menu to access Telnet.  It is also possible to use the mainframe to
transfer files from a remote machine to a TVA machine.  However, you
apparently need some kind of special permission to do so.  Contact your local
Wang administrator for details on how to get security clearance to use the
TSO mainframe pick.



From what I've heard, once you've satisfied the Wang's security requirements
for entering the TSO mainframe pick, the process is exactly the same as it
would be for a PC (as I've outlined above).   The Wang should return a ready
prompt.  At the prompt, enter:



FTP GWINET



You will be connected to Gwinet, and will be prompted for a user ID.  As in
the PC FTP example given above, if you wished to contact Fedworld you would
enter:



ANONYMOUS@FTP.FEDWORLD.GOV



and you would be connected.  Use your Wang mailbox ID for the password when
you are prompted for it, or if you haven't got that much patience use:



    FIRSTINITIAL.LASTNAME@TVA.GOV



I would enter:



    E.DITTO@TVA.GOV



You should then be ready for normal FTP operations, which will follow the
above protocols.  Again, I haven't tried this because I don't have the right
clearance.



4.5  TVA's FTP Sites



TVA has two FTP sites.  The first, at:



    bbs.cha.tva.gov



is inside the firewall, and is available only to TVA users.  This site is
intended for "insider" information, general guides to the Internet, tips on
Internet use, TVA Internet "netiquitte", file transfer between internal
users, and so on. 



The second, at:



    info.tva.gov



is outside the firewall, and is open for read-only access to any user of the
Internet anywhere in the world.



This guide is now available on info.tva.gov.  It is located in the pub/p_e_g
directory.  You'll find three files there:



    readme.txt     A brief explanation of the files in the directory

    p_e_g.doc The guide in Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0 format

    p_e_g.txt The guide in DOS text format



This guide is not copyrighted, so help yourself.



4.6  IS tips for transferring files using a MacIntosh



Information Services has published the following tips for transferring files
through a MacIntosh.  This is a direct quote from "Internet Handbook".



Step 1:  Using your mouse, point to the TCP Connect II icon and click the
mouse button.  A menu bar will be displayed at the top of the window.



Step 2:  Using your mouse, point to the FTP option on the menu, press the
mouse button, and drag the mouse down until you see the options available
under FTP.  Continuing to hold the mouse button down, point to Connect and
then release the mouse button.



Step 3:  The Open FTP Session window will be displayed.  It will prompt you
to enter a hostname, user name, and password.  In the hostname box, type
gwinet.  Move down to the user name box and type the user name.  Move down to
the password box and type the password.  The user name is usually
anonymous@zzz where zzz is the name of the computer where the file resides. 
If you are accessing a public FTP site using the anonymous User ID, the
Internet etiquette recommends that you use the following as your password:
first initial.lastname@tva.gov.  An example of this is b.yates@tva.gov.



Step 4:  The system will display the directory for your computer on the left
side of the window and the directory for the computer where the file resides
will be displayed on the right side of the window.  Scroll through the
directory and select the file that you want to transfer.  Scroll through your
directory and select where you want the file copied.  Using the mouse, select
the appropriate data format, ASCII or Image.  Using the mouse, point to copy
and press the button.



Step 5:  The system will copy the file from its resident computer to your
computer.  It will notify you when the transfer is complete. 



Step 6:  Using the mouse, point to the button in the top left corner of the
Terminal Connect window and double click.  This will close the TCP Connect II
window.



5)Glossary



Archie 



Archie is a sort of super-searching utility which looks for files through
public servers on the Internet.  Last I heard there were indexes of about
1,200 servers and 2.1 million files, so you would think you can find just
about anything you want, wouldn't you?



Archie allows searches by keywords within the file titles or within the file
descriptions.  Archie will then return filenames which meet the criteria you
have set, as well as the servers where those files are located.



There are eight Archie servers that I know of.  These servers are telnet
sites; simply telnet to one of the following addresses to access Archie. 
Some of these sites are used so heavily that their access is restricted
during working hours, but if you telnet to one of these sites and it's shut
down, it will list some other sites which also serve Archie that might be up
and running.



    archie.rutgers.edu

    archie.sura.net     (the best location for TVA users because of its
proximity, but almost         always    closed down during working hours)

    archie.unl.edu (a good site to try during working hours)

    archie.ans.net

    archie.mcgill.ca

    archie.au

    archie.funet.fi

    archie.doc.ic.ac.uk



After you have used Telnet to contact an Archie server, you will see
something like:



    SunOS UNIX (yog-sothoth.sura.net)

    login:



Log in as:



    archie



and a screen with a welcome message and a group of servers will come up.  A
partial list will resemble:



         archie.th-darmstadt.de        130.83.22.60   (German Server)

         archie.unipi.it               131.114.21.10  (Italian Server)

         archie.univie.ac.at      131.130.1.23   (Austrian Server)

         archie.unl.edu           129.93.1.14    (U. of Nebraska, Lincoln)

         archie.uqam.ca           132.208.250.10 (Canadian Server)

         archie.wide.ad.jp        133.4.3.6 (Japanese Server)



    Client software should be supported at all of these sites.



    archie>



Note that you have two addresses for each server:  alphabetical and
numerical.  Archie is now ready to search its databases.  Please also note
that this is the welcome screen for the site at archie.sura.net.  You may see
other welcome screens at other sites, but Archie is essentially the same no
matter what site you're at.  Entering:



    prog filename



will allow you to begin searching for a file with a certain name, such as:



    prog mosaic



Mosaic is a so-called "killer app" of the Internet, which is a graphic user
interface much like Microsoft Windows.  It allows use of menus, the mouse,
and so on.  For more information, see "killer apps" in this glossary.  Mosaic
is a very popular program, and will be located on a number of servers.



One thing you'll want to do before beginning a search is enter the command:



    set pager



This will cause Archie to display only one screen of information at a time,
with pauses between screens.  If you don't use the pager command, Archie will
scroll through every match without stopping, and you won't have time to read
most of the list if you find a lot of matches.



As Archie searches for files which meet the criteria you have set, it will
display the number of servers it has searched and the percentage of the total
number of servers it has access to that this represents.  When Archie
completes the search, it will display a list of servers which have the file,
such as:



    Host chalmers.se   (129.16.1.1)

    Last updated 07:37  3 Mar 1994



    Location: /.gopher/pub/mac/mosaic/.resource

    FILE      rwxrwxr-x         0  Feb 17 14:55   cth.mosaic.sea.hqx



Chalmers.se is the host server where Mosaic for the Macintosh can be found. 
It will be available for anonymous FTP at gopher/pub/mac/mosaic/resource.  



It is also possible to search Archie with descriptions.  Entering:



whatis description



where description might be "economics" for any economics information, would
prompt an appropriate search by Archie.  The result would be:



    RFC1216   Richard, P.; Kynikos, P.  Gigabit network economics and
paradigm                 shifts.  1991 April 1; 4p.



RFC1216 is a filename which contains the appropriate information.  To find
the location of this file, do a program search as illustrated above.  You'll
wind up finding RFC1216 at:



    Host  iggy.gw.vitalink.com  (132.240.4.11)

    last updated  17:27  26 Apr 1994



    Location:  /pub/RFC

    FILE rw-r--r--     7904     May 13     1991     RFC1216.TXT



The help command can be very useful.  Entering:



    help



at the Archie command prompt will return a list of useful commands, which
will include:



    list - displays a list of anonymous FTP sites which are indexed in the
Archie server

    mail address - sends the results of the Archie search to a desired
e-mail address

    servers - returns a list of all known Archie servers

    site computer - lists all the files available for FTP at computer



Free-nets



Free-nets are server computers which, for whatever reasons, allow free
access to the Internet to most, if not all comers.  Most free-nets are set up
to provide networking access to urban communities.  You will usually find
that free-nets are organized similar to small towns.  There will be
"community centers", "commerce centers", "culture centers", and so on.   
There are many popular free-nets (whose addresses are given in section 8).



Advantages of free-nets



-They usually don't cost the user a dime.  Most will ask for some donation
at the time of registration, but they will be careful to say that donations
are recommended but voluntary.  This is left up to the user.



-They provide some excellent services:  e-mail privileges, confidential
discussion groups, access to library catalogs, access to UPI news wire
services, free e-mail Q&A from doctors, lawyers, and psychologists, and many
other kinds of things.



Disadvantages of free-nets:



-Their services are really limited.  This may sound incredible but it's
true.  Most do not have access to the whole Internet.   For example, the
Lorain County Free-net will not allow you direct access to USENET news
groups.  USENET, which is the international forum for over 4000 different
on-line discussion groups, contains many groups such as alt.sex which are
considered obscene by the free-net administrators, so the administrators have
blocked user access.  It's like a family theater. But the administrators have
really thrown the baby out with the bathwater.  There are many, many
wholesome discussion groups which would be useful to users-on every subject
from tax law to DOS applications.



Interestingly, there is a back door into USENET from the Lorain County
Free-net.  Visiting the communications center will allow the user to telnet
to sundry sites.  Choose the University of Arizona Gopher and do some
digging, and you will eventually find the USENET server.  You will not be
able to post your own articles to USENET through the gopher, but you will be
able to read what's being discussed.



But you will be able to post to USENET via e-mail.  See USENET in this
section for details.



FTP



FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol, is really where the phrase
"Information Superhighway" begins to take on its true meaning.  FTP is the
software by which files may be uploaded or downloaded from computer to
computer.  There is a staggering amount of information available on the
Internet free for the taking (in Internet slang, "via anonymous ftp").  For
complete information on FTP and its uses, see section 4.



Gophers



It's easier to learn about gophers from experimentation than from reading
text definitions, so you should really jump in and explore at some point.



A gopher is a computer which acts like a huge filing cabinet.  Open one
drawer and you will have a choice of files.  Within each of those files will
be subfiles, which in turn will contain sub-subfiles.  By borrowing through
this system, you will probably find the resource that you want.  Unlike an
ordinary filing cabinet, however, a gopher will allow you to access the files
across the street, in Washington, D.C., or in London.  The process of finding
your resource will be pretty intuitive, and gophers remove the need to
remember convoluted place names and software protocols.  The gopher handles
all of that for you.



Gophers usually allow you to perform keyword searches, much like a CD ROM
magazine article searcher in a library might do.   When you pick keyword
search from a gopher menu, you will be prompted for a keyword or phrase (and
if you're familiar with Boolean logic operators, you may get to use those as
well).  Enter something you're interested in, and the gopher will tell you
what system resources match your query.  Remember that although one gopher
doesn't have information about your subject, many others may.  Gopher
research is sometimes best performed via the Columbus method...sail in one
direction and hope you run into something.



The Wang system is a mini-gopher.  After you've turned the machine on and
logged in, you have a main menu of functions.  Picking any one of these will
lead you to sub-functions, and eventually you will be able to get your job
done.



Gophers usually reside at major universities.  I tend to use the one at UT
Knoxville (telnet library.utk.edu) the most because of the cost issues
involved, although the gophers at the University of Minnesota (telnet
consultant.micro.umn.edu) and at the University of Indiana (gopher.uiuc.edu)
are popular.  Most gophers have an "other Internet services" or "Other gopher
servers" pick which will allow you to move from gopher to gopher.  As has
been discussed, you can find your way just about anywhere from one starting
point...the maze of gophers is so dense that it's possible to spend a
lifetime just exploring.



A word of warning:  most gophers can run very slowly depending on the system
load at the time.  Gophers like the University of Minnesota's are very
heavily used and may get bogged down.  The way the systems will deal with
overloads is simply by blocking off services which you may want to access. 
They hope you'll get discouraged and go somewhere else.  Surf at your own
risk.



Common gopher commands (as listed by the University of Tennessee gopher)
are:



Arrow keys and navigation



Up -- Move to previous line.

Down -- Move to next line.

Right Return -- Enter/Display current item.

Left, u -- "Exit" current item/Go up a level.



>, +, Pgdwn, space -- View next page.

<, -, Pgup, b -- View previous page.



0-9 -- Go to a specific line.

M -- Go back to the main menu.



Bookmarks



a -- Add current item to the bookmark list.

A -- Add current directory/search to bookmark list.

V -- View bookmark list.

D -- Delete a bookmark/directory entry.



Other commands



s -- Save current item to a file.

D -- Download a file.

Q -- Quit with prompt.

Q -- Quit unconditionally.

= -- Display Technical information about current item.

^ -- Display Technical information about current directory

o -- Open a new gopher server

O -- Change Options

f -- Connect to an anonymous FTP host

/ -- Search for an item in the menu.

N -- Find next search item.

!, $ -- Shell Escape (Unix) or Spawn subprocess (VMS)



Gwinet



Gwinet is TVA's "gateway" through which all communication with the Internet
goes.  The computer itself is a Sun Microsystems machine and is physically
located in Chattanooga.



Any Telnet session must begin with the command:



    tn gwinet



Mailing lists



Like USENET, mailing lists are special interest discussion groups.  Unlike
USENET, which is a central point to which you must go for messages, a mailing
list is basically a central point from which message are sent to you.  A
mailing list will consist of a mailbox to which interested parties send mail
on a certain subject.  At that mailbox a distribution list is kept, so that
any mail sent to the central box is routed to every person on that
distribution list.  Any member can send mail to the whole group.



There are two different ways to subscribe to mailing lists.  If a person is
taking care of the list, sending a subscription request e-mail message in the
following form should work:



list-request@host



or, for example:



tcp-ip-request@nic.ddn.mil



for a discussion group about TCPIP hosted at nic.ddn.mil.



If a computer is maintaining the mailing list, sending to:



mailserver@host



or, for example:



listserv@nusvm.bitnet



should take care of your request.



If a computer is maintaining the mailing list, you must include 



subscribe listname



in the body of the e-mail that you send.  If a person is maintaining the
list, make sure you get the point across that you want to join the list.



When you have joined a mailing list, you will automatically receive any
messages which are posted to that list.  If you wish to post a message,
simply send e-mail to the address of the list, like:



    econ-dev@csn.org



for posting messages to the economic development mailing list which is
maintained at csn.org.



There are a few commonly accepted guidelines to posting to mailing lists
which you will want to be aware of.



-Make sure your postings are appropriate to the list.

-Consider whether or not your postings should be sent to the entire list or
just to one of its members.

-Do not send announcements regarding major news events -- by the time they
get posted they will be old news.

-Don't include graphics or formatting because these will not show up on many
machines. 



A good source of information about the specifics of mailing lists as well as
a good index of lists is Internet:  Mailing Lists, published by SRI
International.  This book contains addresses and descriptions of several
hundred lists on subjects from cogeneration to the Sigma Nu fraternity.



Mosaic and other "killer apps"



"Killer apps" tend to be Microsoft Windows-compatible or other graphic user
interface programs which make Internet use as painless as possible. Mosaic
and Distinct are both examples of these programs.  They generally incorporate
Telnet, FTP, E-mail, graphic viewing, and so on all into one package.



Gwinet does not allow the use of these "killer apps" to access the Internet. 
As discussed elsewhere in this guide, the "firewall" security is quite strong
to prevent unauthorized access, and these easy applications tend to be too
"trusting" for the firewall.



I've been told by a Gwinet administrator that Mosaic will soon be usable by
TVA employees.  Mosaic is available for anonymous FTP at:



    csuvax1.murdoc.edu.au



under the file name:



    pub\pc\windows\mosaic\wmos20a1.zip



Be sure that you have PKZip so that you'll be able to decompress this file,
and be sure that you read the accompanying "readme.now" file.



TCPIP/PCTCP



Perhaps the easiest of the on-ramps is the Windows/TCPIP interface which is
available to TVA employees.  Mine was installed on my computer when my LAN
administrator installed Oracle's Data Browser on my hard drive.  If you have
a PCTCP directory on your hard drive, it's a good bet that you already have
access to the software you need to access the Internet and begin
communicating freely around the world.



TCPIP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. 
Transmission Control Protocol's job is to break down the information you want
to transmit (whether send or receive) into chunks which are manageable for
the network protocol to transfer and then reassemble the chunks once they
have been transmitted.  Internet Protocol's job is to link computers together
in order to transmit information.  These two software packages work behind
the scenes to ensure that your message, job, game, et cetera gets accurately
routed to the correct recipient.



PCTCP stands for PC Transmission Control Protocol, and refers to the PC DOS
version of TCPIP.  There are versions of TCPIP for every conceivable type of
computer:  Macs, UNIX, PC, and so on.  There are currently two main versions
of PCTCP in use at TVA:  2.2 and 2.3.  PCTCP 2.3 is a newer version which
includes more Windows functions than 2.2  I wrote this guide while using
PCTCP 2.2, so I have not had the chance to include these new functions yet.



There are two main software items for Internet communication which will be
contained in your PCTCP directory:  Telnet (tn.exe) and FTP (ftp.exe).   You
may also have Windows interfaces like Windows FTP (wftp.exe) and Windows
Telnet (wtn.exe CHECK FILENAME).



Last I heard, TCPIP software cost about $60 new, or $20 for an upgrade.



Telnet



If you want to call someone, you need a phone.  Telnet acts as the phone
when you are ready to dial the Internet.  It will let you log in to other
computers.  PC users will find Telnet in their PCTCP directories, or perhaps
as an icon on their desktops in Windows, and Wang users will find Telnet
under the supersession pick (SS) on the TVA mainframe.



To create a Telnet icon on your desktop in Windows, make a new program item
called "TN" with the command line "c:\pctcp\tn.exe".  That should do it.  If
you make the command line "c:\pctcp\tn.exe gwinet", you'll be able to skip
the hostname dialog box and proceed directly to Telnet.



A more complete guide to Telnet can be found in section 2.3



USENET



USENET is perhaps the most fascinating resource on the Internet.  More than
3,000,000 users post messages to over 4,000 discussion groups on every
imaginable subject (and I mean that quite literally...watch your step).



Identifying a discussion group:



A discussion group's title will give a good clue as to its nature.  For
example, sci.econ.research is the name of an economic research forum.



"sci" is the major category into which the group falls:  science

"econ" is the sub-category:  economics

"research" is the specific area of discussion, although not all discussion
will be about research.  There is noise on the Internet, just like anywhere
else.



There are seven major categories of USENET discussion groups:



comp --- computer science and kindred topics

news --- USENET news network and software topics

rec --- recreational activities (hobbies, pastimes, art, music, etc.)

sci --- scientific research and activities.  This group is very broad and
includes the social sciences, the hard sciences, and the fuzzy sciences
(cryogenics and so on).

soc --- political and societal issues

talk - forums for debate on various topics, usually controversial or tabloid

misc --- the catch-all



There are also some "local" groups which technically aren't part of USENET
but which are generally included anywhere USENET is.  The distinction between
USENET and non-USENET discussion groups is probably too subtle to worry
about.



alt --- "alternative" viewpoints.  A word of warning:  while you can be a
baaaaad boy in this area, there are some good things here like alt.gopher, a
group for the discussion of gopher management.  Groups like that may make
their way here because this is the easiest area in which to establish a new
group.  Swim at your own risk.

bionet ---  discussion of biology and related issues

bit --- forums for Bitnet listserv (and don't ask me what this is...I
haven't got a clue)

biz --- business-related discussions.  This is one of the few areas on the
Internet where advertising is allowed.

de --- discussion groups in German

fj --- discussion groups in Japanese

ieee --- IEEE discussions

gnu --- a group for discussion of the Free Software Foundation and its GNY
project.  Again, I haven't a clue.

k12 --- discussion for teachers and students from grades K - 12

u3b --- discussion of the AT&T 3b computer system

vmsnet --- discussion of the VAX/VMS operating system and Decnet



You may or may not have access to these groups, depending on the source for
USENET that you're accessing.  Most sources will have the seven major groups
outlined above.



Accessing discussion groups:  how to read what's there



The University of Arizona Gopher no longer offers USENET news.  Previous
editions of this guide recommend that gopher as the best source of USENET,
but since those editions came out, the system operators at UA have removed
that service.  



Currently the best way to get to USENET in TVA is through the Lousiana Tech
gopher, which for now you will have to reach through the University of
Tennessee Gopher.  The process is somewhat convoluted, but it is better than
nothing.  



How to get to USENET through the Lousiana Tech Gopher (via UTK) :



It will first be necessary to telnet to the University of Tennesse gopher
at:



    library.utk.edu



by the process outlined in section 2.3.1:  Telnet for PC users.  One you're
there, you will see the following menu screen:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                          Root gopher server: gopher.lib.utk.edu



    1.  Welcome to UTK Online Library Information System (OLIS)/

    2.  About UTK Libraries/

    3.  UTK Libraries Holdings/

    4.  Other Library Catalogs & Info Systems/

    5.  Electronic Books/

    6.  Electronic Journals/

    7.  Electronic Reference/

    8.  Information by Subject/

    9.  Other Internet Resources/

    10. Other UTK Information/

    11. VERONICA: Search the World of Gopher for Information/

    12. What's New in OLIS.

    13. Search the OLIS menus <?>



    Press ? for Help, q to Quit                                        
Page: 1/1

                                              gwinet.cha.tva.gov  10:21:01



In order to get to USENET, choose (in the following order):



    9.  Other Internet Resources/

    2.  All Gophers & Information Servers/

    8.  North America/

    4.  USA/

    20.  Louisiana/          [note that you can hit '+' to get to the next
page of choices]    

    5.  Louisiana Tech University

    11.  USENET News/



Each of these choices will lead you to other menus, and you may want to come
back to some of these to explore.  All Gophers and Information Servers is a
very interesting place, because you can get to just about any place in the
world.



Once you've arrived at the Lousiana Tech gopher, you'll see the following
screen:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                                      USENET News



    1.  About USENET News at Louisiana Tech.

    2.  Threaded (Overview)/

    3.  Unthreaded (Overview)/



    Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                     
Page: 1/1

                                                     gwinet.cha.tva.gov 
10:28:57

    

USENET is listed under picks 2 and 3.  It really doesn't matter which you
choose; both will refer you to a menu like this:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                             Unthreaded (Overview)



    1.  alt/

    2.  bionet/

    3.  bit/

    4.  comp/

    5.  misc/

    6.  news/

    7.  rec/

    8.  sci/

    9.  soc/

    10. talk/



    Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                     
Page: 1/1

                                                 gwinet.cha.tva.gov 
10:38:13



You can then choose one of the main groups, like sci, where you'll see:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                                         sci



    1.  sci.aeronautics/

    2.  sci.aeronautics.airliners/

    3.  sci.agriculture/

    4.  sci.agriculture.beekeeping/

    5.  sci.answers/

    6.  sci.anthropology/

    7.  sci.anthropology.paleo/

    8.  sci.aquaria/

    9.  sci.archaeology/

    10. sci.archaeology.mesoamerican/

    11. sci.astro/

    12. sci.astro.fits/

    13. sci.astro.hubble/

    14. sci.astro.planetarium/

    15. sci.astro.research/

    16. sci.bio/

    17. sci.bio.ecology/

    18. sci.bio.ethology/



         Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                     
Page: 1/7

                                                       gwinet.cha.tva.gov 
10:44:10





This is the first page of discussion groups available under "sci".  Note
that there are seven pages.  Choosing sci.bio.ecology would return:



Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                                sci.bio.ecology



    1.  JOB: Population Genetics (3273 bytes).

    2.  A Biologist's Guide (PostScript format) (2012 bytes).

    3.  RFD: sci.bio.ecophysiology (1223 bytes).

    4.  growth and sustainability (2154 bytes).



    Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                     
Page: 1/1

                                           gwinet.cha.tva.gov  10:46:51

 

These are the subjects of the USENET items which are posted.  Choosing
growth and sustainability would lead us to a posting about, you guessed it,
growth and sustainability.



USENET is like a haystack, but there are a great many needles.  In section
8.6 I've listed some of the USENET groups that you might be immediately
interested in.  You will need to do some exploring on your own to find other
groups which may be of interest.



You will not be able to post your own messages to USENET groups through the
Louisiana Tech gopher.  In order to accomplish that, you'll have to follow
the process I outline below.



How to get to USENET through Launchpad



Launchpad is a site on the Internet which offers users more control over
their USENET access.  On Launchpad, you can set up a personal file (called
.newsrc) which will screen specific USENET discussion groups for new
postings, and will inform you when new postings occur.  You can also post to
USENET directly from Launchpad.



Launchpad's address is:



    152.2.22.80



To set up a new user account, follow the directions on the screen.  The
process is self-explanatory.  I'm not going to go into the mechanics of
setting up your own .newsrc file becuase Launchpad can explain that process
to you better than I can.  Suffice it to say that the process is pretty
complicated, and you have to set up the file after you already have a good
idea which newsgroups you want constant access to.  This might be a good
place to go for USENET access after you've gotten more familiar with USENET
through other locations.



Accessing discussion groups:  how to post your own messages



Once you've read enough and you decide that you are ready to post a message
to a newsgroup, you need go to the post office in the Lorain County Free-net
(go post) or whatever other e-mail server that you're using and send e-mail. 
You will be sending to a computer which will take your e-mail and post it to
the appropriate group for you.



If your groupname were sci.ecn.research, you would post your message to



    sci-ecn-research@cs.utexas.edu

or

    sci-ecn-research@pws.bull.com



Note that the dots in sci.ecn.research have been replaced with dashes.  
Your message will be posted to the discussion group you have chosen.



Discussion groups of possible interest:



Section 8.6 contains a table of USENET discussion groups which might be of
interest.



Veronica:  Searching Gopherspace



For some reason, characters from the "Archie" family of comics have been
immortalized on the Internet.  Archie, Veronica, and Jughead are all software
packages which attempt to catalog Internet resources.



Veronica is a program which searches gopher menus for text matches.  You
could for example, have Veronica search for  I think the best way to show you
what Veronica is capable of is by showing you a sample session.  Veronica is
available on the University of Tennessee library gopher at:



    library.utk.edu



See USENET in this section to check what the UTK startup screen looks like. 
Choose pick 11 to begin searching gophers with Veronica.



The Veronica start-up screen looks like:



    Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0B pl9



                  VERONICA: Search the World of Gopher for Information



    1.  About VERONICA.

    2.  FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About Veronica.

    3.  How to Compose Veronica Queries.

    4.  Search Gopherspace (via CNIDR, North Carolina) <?>

    5.  Search Gopherspace (via Imperial College, United Kingdom) <?>

    6.  Search Gopherspace (via Manchester, UK) <?>

    7.  Search Gopherspace (via NYSERNet, New York) <?>

    8.  Search Gopherspace (via PSI, California) <?>

    9.  Search Gopherspace (via SUNET, Sweden) <?>

    10. Search Gopherspace (via UNINETT/University of Bergen) <?>

    11. Search Gopherspace (via University of Nevada at Reno) <?>

    12. Search Gopherspace (via University of Pisa, Italy) <?>

    13. Search gopherspace at University of Cologne <?>

    14. Search gopherspace for GOPHER DIRECTORIES  (NYSERNet) <?>

    15. Search gopherspace for GOPHER DIRECTORIES  (PSINet) <?>

    

    Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu                     
Page: 1/1

                                           gwinet.cha.tva.gov  07:21:59



The first three menu items are must-reads.  They will give you good
information about the UTK Veronica server, about Veronica in general, and
about the specifics of searching gophers through Veronica.



If you were interested in searching gophers for information about the
economy, you might choose #4:  Search Gopherspace (via NYSERNet, New York). 
In the middle of the screen, you would see:



    +---------------Search Gopherspace (via CNIDR, North
Carolina)---------------+

    |                                                                        
 |

    | Words to search for                                                    
            |     

    |                                                                        
                         |

    |                                                                        
                         |

    |                                                                        
                         |

    |                  [Cancel: ^G] [Erase: ^U] [Accept: Enter]              
          |

    
+............................................................................
............................................+



with a blinking cursor.  You could then enter:



    economy



and Veronica would begin searching.  Assuming that you got a connection
(because Veronica servers tend to be very busy and assuming that somewhere a
gopher exists with the word "economy" in one of its menu items, you would
eventually be rewarded with an appropriate list of gophers.



Veronica searches can be made more specific through the use of special
conditions. For a list of these conditions, choose #3 on the Veronica menu at
the UTK library gopher.



The World-Wide Web (WWW) and Hypertext



The WWW is a server based on Hypertext, which is a system of "linked words". 
The best way to learn about Hypertext is to jump in.  If you telnetted to:



    info.cern.ch



you would see something like:



         Welcome to the World-Wide Web



                              THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

This is just one of many access points to the web, the universe of

information available over networks. To follow references, just type the

number then hit the return (enter) key.



The features you have by connecting to this telnet server are very primitive

compared to the features you have when you run a W3 "client" program on your

own computer. If you possibly can, please pick up a client for your platform

to reduce the load on this service and  experience the web in its full

splendor.



For more information, select by number:



A list of available W3 client programs[1]

Everything about the W3 project[2]

Places to start exploring[3]

The First International WWW Conference[4]



This telnet service is provided by the WWW team at the European Particle

Physics Laboratory known as CERN[5]

     [End]

1-5, Up, Quit, or Help:



Note that in five places numbers in brackets appear.  If you were to enter a
number, you would receive information about the corresponding menu item. 
Entering



3



for places to start exploring would retrieve the following screen:



         GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE WEB



   There is no "top" to the World-Wide Web. You can look at it from many
points

   of view. Here are some places to start.



  by Subject[1]           The Virtual Library organises information by
subject

                                   matter.



  List of servers[2]     All registered HTTP servers by country



  by Service Type[3]    The Web includes data accessible by many other

                             protocols. The lists by access protocol may
help if

                                  you know what kind of service you are
looking for.



   If you find a useful starting point for you personally, you can configure

   your WWW browser to start there by default.



   See also: About the W3 project[4] .

     [End]







1-4, Back, Up, Quit, or Help:



You now have several more choices to make.  Choosing 1 will return a
"virtual library" of subject matter, with the entries reading somewhat like
an encyclopedia:



    Environment    HOLIT[34] (Israel Ecological & Environmental

                   Information System), ANU biodiversity services[35] ,

                                  FireNet[36] , Hurricane and other
disasters

                                  preparation[37] ,  The Purdue - ES-USDA
Water

                                  Quality[38] Information Management Project
, the

                                  Australian Environmental Resources
Information

                                  Network[39] ; North Carolina Cooperative
Extension

                                  Service Gopher[40]  



Whoa.  Plenty of information out there about the environment.  You can now
access any of the sources above through your computer, and each of them will
probably lead you to many more.



This is where the name "World-Wide Web" arises from.  All of these picks
lead you to other Hypertext, or "linked" menus, which lead you to other
menus, which lead you to...you get the idea.  The best way to learn about
this is to explore.



6)Index






—2—

244PC phone, 17

—A—

Archie, 37

ARPAnet, 6

ASCII, 21, 26, 31, 32, 34

—B—

Bandwidth, 10, 11

Base band communications, 10

binary, 31, 32, 34

Bitnet, 23, 45

Bookmarks

in gophers, 41

Broad band communications, 11

—C—

Censorship, 8, 9

Compuserve, 8, 19, 23

—D—

Data Browser, 12, 43

DOS, 12, 26, 30, 32, 34, 39, 44

—E—

Eagle Secure Gateway, 12, 13, 20

—F—

Fedworld, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34

File Transfer Protocol, 26, 40

Finger, 39

firewall, 12

free-net, 19, 22, 39

FTP, 12, 20, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 35, 40, 41, 44

—G—

gateway, 12, 13, 23, 24, 28, 33

gopher, 13, 14, 40, 41, 45, 46

Gwinet, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 41, 44

—H—

Hypertext, 51

—I—

Information Services, 2, 10, 15, 17, 36

Information Superhighway, 2, 26, 40

Internet, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 55,
56, 57, 59, 60

and commercialization, 8

and information, 2

and number of hosts, 7

and number of users, 8

and security, 9

like a highway system, 6

what it is, 6

Internet Architecture board, 6

Internet Engineering Task Force, 6

Internet Society, 6

Internet Users group, 2

—K—

killer apps, 43

—L—

Lorain County Free-net, 19, 23, 39, 40, 46, 49

—M—

Mailing lists, 42, 43, 55

mainframe, 2, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 35, 44

MCImail, 24

Microsoft Terminal, 16

Mosaic, 12, 26, 43

—N—

National Information Infrastructure, 11

National Science Foundation, 7

navigation

in gophers, 41

—O—

OLIS, 42

on-ramps, 2, 12, 43

OS/2, 34

—P—

PCTCP, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 33, 43, 44

PKZip, 24, 25, 26, 32, 43

Pretty Good Privacy, 24

Prodigy, 8, 19

protocols in which information can be stored, 26

—S—

smileys, 25

Sprintmail, 24

supersession, 13, 14, 44

SURANet, 10

—T—

TCPIP, 12, 19, 43, 44

Telnet, 12, 13, 19, 20, 22, 44

The Whole Internet, 55

TSO, 2, 35

—U—

University of Tennessee, 6, 41

UNIX, 12, 20, 29, 34, 44

USENET, 2, 9, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 57, 59

UTK library gopher, 13

—V—

VMS, 34, 41, 45

vt100, 21

—W—

Wang, 7, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 40, 44

WFTP, 33, 34

Wide band communications, 10

Windows, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 22, 33, 43, 44







7)Bibliography:

Estrada, Susan.  "A Mine Worth Digging".  Network Computing, January 15,
1994.

A list of resources available on the Internet.  Includes a section on "The
Business Information Vein" which is worth checking out.



Hardie, Edward.  Internet Mailing  Lists.  SRI International, 1994.



Hundreds of special interest mailing lists.  May be very useful in
communicating with professionals in your field around the country.



Hogan, Kevin.  "Chillicothe Corp.".  Forbes ASAP (available through the
corporate library).



A success story in use of the Internet to promote regional awareness and
development.



Krol, Ed.  The Whole Internet:  User's Guide and Catalog.  O'Reilley and
Associates, 1993.



A good beginners guide to the Internet.  A must have.



Locke, Christopher.  "Time to Cash In".  Network Computing, January 15,
1994.



Examinations of Internet issues and corporate Internet-use case studies.



Otte, Peter.  "Navigating the Internet".  Mobile Office, June, 1994.



An examination of commercial and non-commercial Internet access providers.



Penney, Robert.  "Understanding Energy Conservation Technologies Through
Electronic Information Transfer".  Strategic Planning for Energy and the
Environment (available through the corporate library).



Lists a variety of modem-accessible electronic information services which
specifically concern energy conservation issues.  Networks include EcoNet,
EEI Online, Electric Ideas Clearinghouse BBS, and others.



Tetzeli, Rick.  "The Internet and Your Business".  Fortune, March 7, 1994.



Companies which are integrating the Internet into their operations, and why
you should too.



Wallich, Paul.  "Wire Pirates".  Scientific American, March, 1994.



Examination of the good guys and the bad guys on the Internet:  hackers,
phreaks, trojan horses, and so on.  A very good dictionary of Internet slang.



Wired Magazine.



A good "cyberspace" magazine.  Explores Internet issues, lists resources,
and presents new technology.



8)People, Places, and Things





These sites are recommended for exploration.  If I've contacted the site
I'll include a brief explanation.  Please let me know about your experiences
with these sites, as well as other great sites you've found.



8.1 Telnet sites



Cleveland Free-Net -- freenet-in-a.cwru.edu, freenet-in-b.cwru.edu,
freenet-in-c.cwru



The original free-net, and one of the largest in the country.   These lines
are almost always busy.



Fedworld -- fedworld.gov



An excellent repository for thousands of government documents.  You might
find Nafta, the Clinton Health Care Plan, the 1995 Federal Budget, the Brady
Law, and so on.



Library of Congress -- marvel.loc.gov -- login as "marvel"



Lorain County Free-net -- freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu



A server in Lorain County, Ohio which provides free Internet access.



NASA Spacelink -- spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov



A good place to look for up to date information on the Hubble Telescope,
shuttle launches, weather forecasts, and so on.



Peoria Free-net -- heartland.bradley.edu



The Well -- well.sf.ca.us



The Well is a huge Internet server located in San Francisco.  It's a neat
place to visit, but it's fee-based and you can find free access elsewhere.  



Weather -- madlab.sprl.umich.edu



National Weather Service reports



Youngstown, Ohio Free-Net -- yfn.ysu.edu -- login as "guest"



8.2 FTP Sites



CDROM -- anonymous@ftp.cdrom.com



A wonderful archive of thousands of files which you will want.  There's a
whole directory devoted to Windows 3.1, and I can't stress enough what a
great site this is.  You could spend days downloading useful things from
here.  If the line is busy, keep trying.  It's well worth the wait.



Fedworld -- anonymous@ftp.fedworld.gov



Where to download files from once you've discovered them in the Fedworld
Telnet site.



Internet information stored at TVA -- anonymous@bbs.cha.tva.gov



Microsoft -- anonymous@ftp.microsoft.com



Microsoft places drivers, free upgrades, and demonstrations here.  For
example, right now you can get the free Microsoft Word 6.0A upgrade from this
site.



Special Internet Connections compiled by Steve Yanoff --
anonymous@csd4.csd.uwm.edu



8.3 Gophers



University of Arizona Gopher -- info.ccit.arizona.edu or
lanka.ccit.arizona.edu -- login as "info"

    

At one time this was a good source to read USENET discussion group postings. 
USENET services at this site have been discontinued, but this is still a good
place to begin because traffic on this machine is not very heavy.



University of Minnesota Gopher -- consultant.micro.umn.edu -- login as
"gopher"



The original gopher.  This gopher server is very heavily used and will be
slow.



University of Tennessee, Knoxville Library Gopher -- library.utk.edu --
login as "gopher"



This is a good gopher for general use.  It's close and it has a lot of
resources available, including a UTK library catalog on-line.



8.4 Mailing Lists



Cogeneration -- cogeneration-request@grove.iup.edu



This is a fairly inactive discussion group for cogeneration topics. 
Occasionally some mail will be sent out to the members of this list, but the
mail usually concerns conferences on related topics.  Perhaps there aren't
enough people interested in this list yet.



Economic Development -- majordomo@csn.org



Econ-dev is a good discussion group for economic development and related
issues.  The group is fairly active and includes some suscribers with
impressive credentials.



8.5 Miscellaneous sites



US Department of Agriculture Office Economic Research Service --
(1-800-821-6229) -- 9600 baud -- access through a terminal program



Bureau of Prisons Office of Information Systems -- (1-202-514-6102) -- 9600
baud, terminal



Commerce Office of Business Analysis -- (1-202-482-3870) -- 2400 baud,
terminal 



Environmental Protection Agency BBS -- (1-800-658-8815) -- 2400 baud,
terminal



Federal Deficit Reduction -- (1-202-225-5527) -- terminal



FERC Commission Issuance Posting System -- (1-202-208-1397) -- terminal



Historical documents -- minnesota gopher/libraries/electronic books/by
title/historical documents



Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division -- (1-202-874-9574)
-- 9600 baud, terminal



Library of Congress News Service -- (1-202-707-3854) -- 2400 baud, terminal



US Department of Energy -- Megawatts BBS -- (1-202-482-3870) -- 2400 baud,
terminal



USDA information -- psupen.psu.edu



8.6 USENET Discussion Groups



You may find some of the following discussion groups to be of interest. 
There are approximately 4,000 groups in the USENET family, so there are
probably a great many others you'll want to explore as well.



Two sources you can use to access these groups are the Louisiana Tech gopher
and Launchpad.  You can find how to access these two sites in section 5 under
USENET.



Group Name
Subject matter

biz.jobs.offered
Position announcements

comp.apps.spreadsheets
Spreadsheets on various platforms

comp.dcom.lans.misc
Local area network hardware and software

comp.infosystems.gis
All aspects of Geographic Information Systems

comp.infosystems.gopher
Discussion of the gopher information service

comp.lsi.testing
Testing of electronic circuits

comp.org.eff.news
News from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation

comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Speculation and debate about Microsoft Windows

comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
TCP\IP for IBM personal computers

misc.jobs.contract
Discussions about contract labor

misc.jobs.misc
Discussion about employment, workplaces, careers

misc.jobs.offered
Announcements of positions available

misc.jobs.offered.entry
Job listings only for entry-level positions

misc.jobs.resumes
Postings of resumes and situation wanted articles

misc.taxes
Tax laws and advice

sci.econ
The science of economics

sci.edu
The science of education

sci.electronics
Circuits, theory, electrons, and discussions

sci.energy
Discussions about energy science technology.

sci.engr
Technical discussions about engineering tasks

sci.engr.biomed
Discussing the field of biomedical engineering

sci.engr.chem
All aspects of chemical engineering

sci.engr.civil
Topics related to civil engineering

sci.engr.control
The engineering of control systems

sci.engr.mech
The field of mechanical engineering

sci.environment
Discussions about the environment and ecology

sci.math.stat
Statistics discussion

sci.physics.fusion
Info of fusion, especially cold fusion

alt.appalachian
Appalachian region awareness, events, and culture

alt.dcom.catv
Discussion of cable TV technology

alt.dcom.telecom
Discussion of telecommunications technology

alt.internet.access.wanted
Information about connecting to the Internet

alt.internet.services
Information about services available on the Internet

alt.politics.economics
Political economics, taxes, government budgets



8.7  The Help Desk and the Internet Users Groups 



How do I know if I'm connected to the Internet?  How do I get connected? 
Where else can I get Internet information?  What are good sites to visit on
the Internet?



These are all good questions.  There are two very good sources of Internet
information in TVA.  The Help Desk at 615-751-HELP is a good place for
information about the mechanics of getting connected.



Additionally, three user's groups meet periodically within TVA to discuss
Internet-related issues.  Notification of meetings is usually given via
e-mail.



Location
Contact
Phone

Knoxville
Bill Haynes
(615) 632-6319

Muscle Shoals
Gary Williams
(205) 386-2042

Chattanooga
Debra Mills
(615) 751-4916



About New Products and Services

New Products and Services is one of the eight organizations which make up the
Customer Group's Marketing Council.  NP&S is managed by Russell Robertson
(615-751-6441).



The purpose of NP&S is to seek out new ideas, promote innovation, and work
with others to ensure that the best ideas in customer service reach the
marketplace in the shortest possible time.



NP&S contains three sections:  Market and Business Analysis, managed by Jim
West (615-751-6428), Marketing Product Analysis, managed by David Lamb
(615-751-6318), and Dispersed Generation Acquisition, managed by Mike
Anderson (615-751-6275).





About the Author



Ed Ditto came to TVA in 1993 from MBA school at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville.  He is a member of the Powerhouse, a recruiting organization
contained within New Products and Services.




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Ed Ditto






