Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1995 01:10:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Doctor Bob
To: TOURBUS@colossus.net
Subject: Internet Power Tools - Part II
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TOURBUS - 07 Sep 1995
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\___/ \___/ "Why Surf When U Can Ride The Bus?" \___/
Today's Stop: Power Tools For The Internet - Part II
OK, so the double posting problem isn't quite licked. The tech support
OK, so the double posting problem isn't quite licked. The tech support
guy thinks *maybe* this time we'll nail it. Hmmm, I wonder if you can
save 60% - 160% on your phone bill by getting TWO TOURBUS postings? I
guess you'll have to ask Sam of Hasada Communications (who hails from
Nairobi, Kenya!) about that one. :-)
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Today we're continuing our Power Tools series. I'm giving Patrick the
day off, but wouldn't it be cool if he got 15,000 Happy Birthday messages
in his mailbox? Maybe we could set a record or something. (Hee hee,
don't tell him I put you up to this...)
People Finders
--------------
There are several good people looker-uppers available on the Net that
can help you find someone's e-mail address, and sometimes other personal
information too.
Let's look first at NETFIND, which searches a variety of white pages
information sources. Telnet to ds.internic.net, login as "netfind" and
then follow the instructions to perform a search. Generally you provide
a lastname and one or more keywords describing the person's location
(company, organization, city, country, etc.)
NETFIND can also help you find domain names for geographical locations.
Try a search of "xxx guam" and you'll see that the Internet extends
even to the far reaches of the Pacific.
WHOIS is another database operated by InterNIC, but it contains mostly
network administrator types and a few "notable" Net personalities. You
can enter "whois rickard" at your shell prompt (telnet to rs.internic.net
first if no local whois) and you'll find that the editor of Boardwatch
Magazine falls into one of the aforementioned categories. (see Figure 5)
A further query on the parenthetical "JR465" reveals even more shocking
detail.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rickard, Jack (JR465) jack.rickard@BOARDWATCH.COM |
| (303) 973-6038
| Boardwatch Magazine |
| 8500 West Bowles Ave. |
| Littleton, CO 80123 |
+----------------------------------------------------+
The FOUR11 ONLINE USER DIRECTORY is another Internet white pages service
which can be used to look for someone's e-mail address or personal Web
page. All Internet users are provided a free listing and access to the
Four11 directory, which purports to hold data on over 1,000,000 users.
Check it out on the Web at http://www.Four11.com or send e-mail to
info@FOUR11.com
And let's not overlook the handy USENET-ADDRESSES DATABASE at MIT which
keeps tabs on everyone who has posted a message on Usenet. Send e-mail to
"mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu" and include this command ONLY in the BODY:
send usenet-addresses/
Specify as much information as you can about the person (lastname,
firstname, userid, site, etc.) to limit the amount of information that
is returned to you. Here's a sample query to find the address of
someone you think may be at Harvard University:
send usenet-addresses/Jane Doe Harvard
Web Searchers
-------------
There's a lot of great stuff out on the Web, but how do you find it?
Well, just like Archie and Veronica help you search FTP and gopher sites,
there are several search engines that have been developed to search for
information on the Web. Here is the Doctor's prescription for which ones
to use and which to pass on.
WEBCRAWLER is the brainchild of Brian Pinkerton at the University of
Washington. This is a superfast search engine that always seems to be
reachable and has a fairly large database that can find frogs, flowers
and many other items of interest. Webcrawler can be found at:
http://webcrawler.com
LYCOS is another excellent web searcher, hosted at Carnegie Mellon
University. Lycos boasts over 5 million entries in it's database
and over 10 million answered queries. The fact that it's so big and
so well-known often makes it hard to reach, though. Try your luck at:
http://www.lycos.com
WORLD-WIDE WEB WORM was voted "Best Navigational Tool" in the "Best of the
Web '94" contest. But it's not clear if the database has not been updated
since September 1994, which makes it of questionable value given the
explosive growth of the WWW since then. Even so, it's worth a look because
it offers several pages of hints to help with various types of searches.
Hop over to:
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html
CUSI (Configurable Unified Search Engine) is a configurable search
interface for many searchable WWW resources. It allows you to quickly
check related resources, without having to navigate and retype the
keywords.
Internet search tools and which are best for specific tasks.
http://pubweb.nexor.co.uk/public/cusi/cusi.html
Net Catalogs
------------
Not sure what you want? Here are four topical catalogs of "good stuff"
that you can search. Wax up the board and hit the surf at:
http://www.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo
http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html - EInet Galaxy
http://nearnet.gnn.com/wic - Whole Internet Catalog
http://cuiwww.unige.ch/ - CUI W3 Catalog
LISTSERV Tools
--------------
Looking for a mailing list? Send e-mail to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu with
LIST GLOBAL /whatever
in the BODY and you'll get a report on lists that match your keyword.
You can also find "lists of lists" in the following places:
Usenet: news.lists "Publicly_Accessible_Mailing_Lists" (14 parts)
FTP: rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/mailing-lists
Did you know that many mailing lists have searchable archives? A
very helpful document which details the commands used to subscribe,
unsubscribe and search mailing list archives tells all.
Send the command "GET MAILSER CMD NETTRAIN F=MAIL" in the BODY of a
note to LISTSERV@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu, and you'll receive the file
by e-mail.
Usenet Necessities
------------------
A new service on the Web makes it possible to search Usenet newsgroups
for postings that contain keywords of interest to you. To search the
last few months of Usenet drivel, zip on over to:
http://www.dejanews.com
There's another service at Stanford University that allows you to
"subscribe" and receive a daily list of newsgroup postings that
match your search criteria. This used to work much better than it
does now. I've found that it misses some of the posts I am looking
for lately, and only delivers the hits a few times a week instead of
daily - undoubtedly another victim of enormous popularity. Send mail
to netnews@db.stanford.edu with HELP in the body for full details.
If you're willing to pay for the privilege of searching several months'
worth of Usenet postings, then INFOSEEK (http://www.infoseek.com) is
the place to go.
More Cool Databases & Archives
------------------------------
On the Web...
MIDnet - http://www.mid.net/
800# Info - http://harvest.cs.colorado.edu/brokers/800/query.html
Stock Quotes - http://www.quote.com/
TV Listings - http://tv1.com/wot/index.html
Thomas Legislative Server - http://thomas.loc.gov/
Via Gopher...
The Gopher Jewels Project
Gopher to cwis.usc.edu and follow the path:
Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources /
Gophers_by_Subject / Gopher_Jewels
Clearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides
Gopher to una.hh.lib.umich.edu and select "inetdirs"
(Or via WWW at http://www.lib.umich.edu/chhome.html)
Fee-based Databases
INFOSEEK: http://www.infoseek.com
DIALOG: telnet dialog.com (1-800-3DIALOG)
LEXIS: telnet lexis.meaddata.com (1-800-227-4908)
Weep No More...
---------------
Now you're prepared to find almost anything in cyberspace - that is if
you've got a decent Internet connection offering telnet, gopher and
WWW access. But even if you're stuck with a simple e-mail account,
there's good news.
You can access almost all of the resources and search tools in this
series by e-mail! "Accessing The Internet By E-Mail", my guide to
offline Internet access, is a free document that reveals all.
To get the latest edition, send e-mail
To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
Or if you like, access it directly via FTP at rtfm.mit.edu in the file:
pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1995, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
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