From: BobRankin@Delphi.Com (Doctor Bob)
Newsgroups:
alt.internet.services,alt.online-service,alt.bbs.internet,alt.answers,news.a
nswers
Subject: Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Followup-To: poster
Summary: This guide will show you how to retrieve files from FTP sites,
         explore the Internet via Gopher, search for information with
         Archie, Veronica, or WAIS, tap into the World-Wide Web, and
         even access Usenet newsgroups using E-MAIL AS YOUR ONLY TOOL.

Archive-name: internet-services/access-via-email
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1994/11/30
Version: 3.0


                 Accessing The Internet By E-Mail
           Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Internet Access
                    3rd Edition - December 1994


              Copyright (c) 1994,  "Doctor Bob" Rankin

   All rights reserved.  Permission is granted to make and distribute
   verbatim copies of this document provided the copyright notice and
   this permission notice are preserved on all copies.  Feel free to
            upload to your favorite BBS or Internet server!


How to Access Internet Services by E-mail
-----------------------------------------

If your only access to the Internet is via e-mail, you don't have to
miss out on all the fun!  Maybe you've heard of FTP, Gopher, Archie,
Veronica, Finger, Whois, WAIS, World-Wide Web, and Usenet but thought
they were out of your reach because your online service does not provide
those tools.  Not so!  And even if you do have full Internet access,
using e-mail servers can save you time and money.

This special report will show you how to retrieve files from FTP sites,
explore the Internet via Gopher, search for information with Archie,
Veronica, or WAIS, tap into the World-Wide Web, and even access Usenet
newsgroups using E-MAIL AS YOUR ONLY TOOL.

If you can send a note to an Internet address, you're in the game!  This
is great news for users of online services where there is partial or no
direct Internet access.  As of late 1994, there were 150 countries with
only e-mail connections to the Internet.  This is double the number of
countries with direct (IP) connections.

I encourage you to read this entire document first and then go back and
try out the techniques that are covered.  This way, you will gain a
broader perspective of the information resources that are available, an
introduction to the tools you can work with, and the best methods for
finding the information you want.


Finding the Latest Version
--------------------------

This document is now available from several automated mail servers.
To get the latest edition, send e-mail to one of the addresses below.

To: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu (for US/Canada/etc.)
Leave Subject blank, and enter only this line in the body of the note:
  GET INTERNET BY-EMAIL NETTRAIN F=MAIL

To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu (for Eastern US)
Leave Subject blank, and enter only this line in the body of the note:
  send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email

To: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (for UK/Europe/etc.)
Leave Subject blank, and enter only this line in the body of the note:
  send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt

You can also get the file by anonymous FTP at one of these sites:

Site: ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
   get NETTRAIN/INTERNET.BY-EMAIL
Site: rtfm.mit.edu
   get pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
   get pub/lists/lis-iis/files/e-access-inet.txt

Acknowledgements
----------------

This document is continually expanding and improving as a result of the
daily flood of comments and questions received by the author.  The following
individuals are hereby recognized for their contributions.  (If I forgot
anyone, let me know and I'll gladly add you to the list.)

   Miles Baska
   Sylvain Chamberland
   Roddy MacLeod - Engineering Faculty Librarian, Heriot Watt University
   George McMurdo - Queen Margaret College
   Jim Milles - NETTRAIN Moderator, Saint Louis University
   Glee Willis - Engineering Librarian, University of Nevada
   Herman VanUytven - Netnews->Email server developer


A Short Aside... "What is the Internet?"
----------------------------------------

Many introductory texts on the Internet go into excruciating detail on
the history, composition and protocol of the Internet.  If you were
looking for that you won't find it here, because this is a "how to"
lesson, not a history book.

When you buy a new car, they don't make you read "The Life and Times of
Henry Ford" before you can turn the top down and squeal off the lot.
And when you get a new computer, nobody forces you to read a text on
logic design before you fire up Leisure Suit Larry or WordPerfect.

So if you're the type that wants to short-circuit the preliminaries and
just dig in, you've come to the right place.  I'm not going to bore you
with the gory details.  Instead, I'll just offer up my Reader's Digest
condensed definition of the Internet, and encourage you to read more
about the Internet in one of the many fine Internet books and guides
listed in the "Suggested Reading" section.  Some of them are even free,
and accessible directly from the Internet!

Internet (noun) - A sprawling collection of computer networks that spans
the globe, connecting government, military, educational and commercial
institutions, as well as private citizens to a wide range of computer
services, resources, and information.  A set of network conventions and
common tools are employed to give the appearance of a single large
network, even though the computers that are linked together use many
different hardware and software platforms.


The Rules of The Game
---------------------

This document is meant to be both tutorial and practical, so there are
lots of actual commands and internet addresses listed herein.  You'll
notice that when these are included in the text they are indented by
several spaces for clarity.  Don't include the leading spaces when you
try these commands on your own!

You'll also see things like "<file>" or "<name>" appearing in this
document.  Think of these as place holders or variables which must
be replaced with an appropriate value.  Do NOT include the quotes or
brackets in your value unless specifically directed to do so.

Often you'll be told to "send e-mail with a blank subject" to some
address.  This means to simply leave the "Subject:" field blank in
your note.  If your mailer refuses to send messages with a blank
subject, give it some dummy value.  In most cases this will work fine.

Most e-mail servers understand only a small set of commands and are
not very forgiving if you deviate from what they expect.  So include
ONLY the specified commands in the "body" of your note and leave off
any extraneous lines such as your signature, etc.

Pay attention to upper/lower case in directory and file names when
using e-mail servers.  It's almost always important!


                           FTP BY E-MAIL
                           -------------

FTP stands for "file transfer protocol", and is a means of accessing
files that are stored on remote computer systems.  In Internet lingo,
these remote computers are called "sites".  Files at FTP sites are
typically stored in a tree-like set of directories (or nested folders
for Mac fans), each of which pertains to a different subject.

When visiting an FTP site using a "live" internet connection, one would
specify the name of the site, login with a userid & password, navigate
to the desired directory and select one or more files to be transferred
back to their local system.

Using FTP by e-mail is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "ftpmail server" which logs in to the remote
site and returns the requested files to you in response to a set of
commands in an e-mail message.

Using FTP by e-mail can be nice even for those with full Internet
access, because some popular FTP sites are heavily loaded and
interactive response can be very sluggish.  So it makes sense not to
waste time and connect charges in these cases.

To use FTP by e-mail, you first need a list of FTP "sites" which are the
addresses of the remote computer systems that allow you to retrieve
files anonymously (without having a userid and password on that system).

There are some popular sites listed later in this guide, but you can get
a comprehensive list of hundreds of anonymous FTP sites by sending an
e-mail message to the internet address:

  mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu

with a blank subject and include these lines in the body of the note.

   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part1
   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part2
   ... (lines omitted for brevity)
   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part13
   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part14

You will then receive (by e-mail) 14 files which comprise the "FTP Site
List".  Note that these files are each about 60K, so the whole lot will
total over 750K!  This could place a strain on your system, so first
check around to see if the list is already available locally, or
consider requesting just the first few as a sampler before getting the
rest.

Another file you might want to get is "FTP Frequently Asked Questions"
which contains lots more info on using FTP services, so add this line to
your note as well.

   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq

After you receive the site list you'll see dozens of entries like this,
which tell you the site name, location and the kind of files that are
stored there.

   Site   : oak.oakland.edu
   Country: USA
   Organ  : Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
   System : Unix
   Comment: Primary Simtel Software Repository mirror
   Files  : BBS lists; ham radio; TCP/IP; Mac; modem protocol info;
            MS-DOS; MS-Windows; PC Blue; PostScript; Simtel-20; Unix

If you find an interesting FTP site in the list, send e-mail to one of
these ftpmail servers:

   ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu                      (USA/NC)
   bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu                    (USA/NJ)
   bitftp@vm.gmd.de                             (Europe)
   bitftp@plearn.edu.pl                         (Europe)
   ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk                         (UK)
   ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au                        (Australia)

and in the body of the note, include these lines:

   open <site>
   dir
   quit

This will return to you a list of the files stored in the root directory
at that site.  In your next e-mail message you can navigate to other
directories by inserting (for example)

   cd pub

before the "dir" command.  (The "cd" means "change directory" and "pub"
is a common directory name, usually a good place to start.) Once you
determine the name of a file you want to retrieve, use:

   get <name of file>

in the following note instead of the "dir" command.  If the file you
want to retrieve is plain text, this will suffice.  If it's a binary
file (an executable program, compressed file, etc.) you'll need to
insert the command:

   binary

in your note before the "get" command.

OK, let's grab the text of The Declaration of Independence.  Here's the
message you send to ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu (or another ftpmail server):

   open ftp.eff.org                 (The name of the FTP site)
   cd pub/CAF/civics                (The directory where the file lives)
   get dec_of_ind                   (The name of the file to retrieve)
   quit                             (Beam me up, Scotty!)

Here are the commands you would send to to get a file from the Simtel
Software Repository that was mentioned earlier.

   open oak.oakland.edu             (The name of the FTP site)
   cd SimTel/msdos/bbs              (The directory where the file lives)
   binary                           (Because we're getting a ZIP file)
   get answer2.zip                  (Sounds interesting, anyway...)
   quit                             (We're outta here!)

Some other interesting FTP sites you may want to "visit" are listed below.
(Use these site names on the "open" command and the suggested directory
name on your "cd" command, as in the previous examples.)

   ocf.berkeley.edu    Try: pub/Library for documents, Bible, lyrics, etc.
   rtfm.mit.edu        Try: pub/usenet/news.answers for USENET info
   oak.oakland.edu     Try: SimTel/msdos for a huge DOS software library
   ftp.sura.net        Try: pub/nic for Internet how-to documents
   quartz.rutgers.edu  Try: pub/humor for lots of humor files
   gatekeeper.dec.com  Try: pub/recipes for a cooking & recipe archive

You should note that ftpmail servers tend to be quite busy so your reply
may not arrive for several minutes, hours, or days, depending on when
and where you send your request.  Also, some large files may be split
into smaller pieces and returned to you as multiple messages.

If the file that is returned to you ends up looking something like what
you see below, (the word "begin" with a number and the filename on one
line, followed by a bunch of 61-character lines) it most likely is a
binary file that has been "uuencoded" by the sender.  (This is required
in order to reliably transmit binary files on the Internet.)

    begin 666 answer2.zip
    M4$L#!`H`!@`.`/6H?18.$-Z$F@P```@?```,````5$5,25@S,34N5%A480I[
    M!P8;!KL,2P,)!PL).PD'%@.(!@4.!P8%-@.6%PL*!@@*.P4.%00.%P4*.`4.

You'll need to scrounge up a version of the "uudecode" program for your
operating system (DOS, OS/2, Unix, Mac, etc.) in order to reconstruct the
file.  Most likely you'll find a copy already at your site or in your
service provider's download library, but if not you can use the instructions
in the next section to find out how to search FTP sites for a copy.

One final point to consider...  If your online service charges you to
store e-mail files that are sent to you and you plan to receive some
large files via FTP, it would be wise to handle your "inbasket"
expeditiously to avoid storage costs.


                            ARCHIE BY E-MAIL
                            ----------------

Let's say you know the name of a file, but you have no idea at which FTP
site it might be lurking.  Or maybe you're curious to know if a file
matching a certain naming criteria is available via FTP.  Archie is the
tool you can use to find out.

Archie servers can be thought of as a database of all the anonymous FTP
sites in the world, allowing you to find the site and/or name of a file
to be retrieved.  And using Archie by e-mail can be convenient because
some Archie searches take a LONG time to complete, leaving you to tap
your toes in the meantime.

To use Archie by e-mail, simply send an e-mail message to one of the
following addresses:

   archie@archie.rutgers.edu                    (USA/NJ)
   archie@archie.sura.net                       (USA/MD)
   archie@archie.unl.edu                        (USA/NE)
   archie@archie.doc.ic.ac.uk                   (UK)
   archie@archie.luth.se                        (Sweden)
   archie@archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp             (Japan)

To obtain detailed help for using Archie by mail, put the word

   help

in the subject of the note and just send it off.  You'll receive e-mail
explaining how to use archie services.

If you're the "just do it" type, then leave the subject blank and enter:

   find <file>

where "<file>" is the name of the file to search for, in the body (not
the subject) of the note.

This will search for files that match your criteria exactly.  If you
want to find files that contain your search criteria anywhere in their
name, insert the line

   set search sub

before the "find" command.  Some other useful archie commands you might
want to use are:

   set maxhits 20             (limit output, default is 100 files)
   set match_domain usa       (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
   set output_format terse    (return output in condensed form)

When you get the results from your Archie query, it will contain the
names of various sites at which the desired file is located.  Use one of
these site names and the directory/filename listed for your next FTP
file retrieval request.

Now you've learned enough to locate that uudecode utility mentioned in
the last section.  Let's send e-mail to archie@archie.rutgers.edu, and
include the following lines in the message:

   set match_domain usa       (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
   set search sub             (looking for a substring match...)
   file uudecode              (must contain this string...)

Note: You'll be looking for the uudecode source code, not the executable
version, which would of course be a binary file and would arrive
uuencoded - a Catch 22!  The output of your archie query will contain
lots of information like this:

   Host ftp.clarkson.edu    (128.153.4.2)
   Last updated 06:31  9 Oct 1994

   Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
   FILE    -r-xr-xr-x    5572 bytes  21:00 11 Mar 1991  uudecode.bas

   Location: /pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/starter
   FILE    -r-xr-xr-x    5349 bytes  20:00 17 Apr 1991  uudecode.c


Now you can use an ftpmail server to request "uudecode.bas" (if you have
BASIC available) or "uudecode.c" (if you have a C compiler) from the
ftp.clarkson.edu site.


                            GOPHER BY E-MAIL
                            ----------------

Gopher is an excellent tool for exploring the Internet and is the best
way to find a resource if you know what you want, but not where to find
it.  A gopher system is menu-based, and provides a user-friendly
"front-end" to Internet resources, searches and information retrieval.
Without a tool like Gopher, you'd have to wander aimlessly through the
Internet jungles and swamps to find the treasures you seek.  Gopher
"knows where things are" and guides you to the good stuff.

Gopher takes the rough edges off of the Internet by automating remote
logins, hiding the sometimes-cryptic command sequences, and offers
powerful search capabilities as well.  And of course you can use
Gopher by e-mail!

Although not every item on every menu will be accessible by "gopher
mail", you'll still find plenty of interesting things using this
technique.  Down to brass tacks...  let's send e-mail to one of these
addresses:

   gophermail@calvin.edu                  (USA)
   gopher@earn.net                        (France)
   gopher@dsv.su.se                       (Sweden)
   gomail@ncc.go.jp                       (Japan)

Leave the Subject blank, enter HELP in the body of the note, and let it
rip.  You'll soon receive by e-mail the text of the main menu at the
gophermail site you selected.  (You can optionally specify the address
of a known gopher site on the Subject line to get the main menu for that
site instead.)

To proceed to a selection on the returned menu just e-mail the whole
text of the note (from the menu downwards) back to the gopher server,
placing an "x" next to the items(s) you want to explore.  You'll then
receive the next level of the gopher menu by e-mail.  Some menu choices
lead to other menus, some lead to text files, and some lead to searches.

To perform a search, select that menu item with an "x" and supply your
search words in the Subject: of your next reply.  Note that your search
criteria can be a single word or a boolean expression such as:

   document and (historical or government)

Each of the results (the "hits") of your search will be displayed as
an entry on yet another gopher menu!

Note: You needn't actually return the entire gopher menu and all the
routing info that follows it each time you reply to the gophermail
server.  If you want to minimize the size of your query, you can strip
out the "menu" portion at the top and include only the portion below
that pertains to the menu selection you want.  The example that follows
shows how to select one specific item from a gopher menu:

   ------- begin gophermail message (do not include this line)
   Split=0 bytes/message - For text, bin, HQX messages (0 = No split)
   Menu=0 items/message - For menus and query responses (0 = No split)
   #
   Name=EE Telecommunication Overview
   Type=0
   Port=70
   Path=0/.d-f/eetel.info
   Host=nceet.snre.umich.edu
   ------- end gophermail message (do not include this line)

If this message looks like nonsense to you, here's a human translation:

   Connect to PORT 70 of the HOST (computer) at "nceet.snre.umich.edu",
   retrieve the FILE "eetel.info" (whose NAME is "EE Telecommunication
   Overview") and send it to me in ONE PIECE, regardless of its size.

Note: Sometimes gophermail requests return a blank menu or message.  This
is most likely because the server failed to connect to the host from which
you were trying to get your information.  Send your request again later
