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authorThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
committerThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
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+Network Working Group G. Kessler
+Request for Comments: 2151 S. Shepard
+FYI: 30 Hill Associates, Inc.
+Obsoletes: RFC 1739 June 1997
+Category: Informational
+
+
+ A Primer On Internet and TCP/IP Tools and Utilities
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
+ does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
+ this memo is unlimited.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This memo is an introductory guide to many of the most commonly-
+ available TCP/IP and Internet tools and utilities. It also describes
+ discussion lists accessible from the Internet, ways to obtain
+ Internet and TCP/IP documents, and some resources that help users
+ weave their way through the Internet.
+
+Table of Contents
+
+ 1. Introduction................................................... 2
+ 2. Nomenclature................................................... 2
+ 3. Finding Information About Internet Hosts and Domains........... 3
+ 3.1. NSLOOKUP.................................................. 3
+ 3.2. Ping...................................................... 6
+ 3.3. Finger.................................................... 8
+ 3.4. Traceroute................................................ 9
+ 4. The Two Fundamental Tools...................................... 12
+ 4.1. TELNET.................................................... 12
+ 4.2. FTP....................................................... 15
+ 5. User Database Lookup Tools..................................... 19
+ 5.1. WHOIS/NICNAME............................................. 19
+ 5.2. KNOWBOT................................................... 23
+ 6. Information Servers............................................ 24
+ 6.1. Archie.................................................... 24
+ 6.2. Gopher.................................................... 28
+ 6.3. VERONICA, JUGHEAD, and WAIS............................... 30
+ 7. The World Wide Web............................................. 31
+ 7.1. Uniform Resource Locators................................. 34
+ 7.2. User Directories on the Web............................... 35
+ 7.3. Other Service Accessible Via the Web...................... 36
+ 8. Discussion Lists and Newsgroups................................ 37
+ 8.1. Internet Discussion Lists................................. 37
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ 8.2. LISTSERV.................................................. 38
+ 8.3. Majordomo................................................. 38
+ 8.4. Usenet.................................................... 39
+ 8.5 Finding Discussion Lists and Newsgroups.................... 40
+ 9. Internet Documentation......................................... 41
+ 9.1. Request for Comments (RFCs)............................... 41
+ 9.2. Internet Standards........................................ 44
+ 9.3. For Your Information Documents............................ 45
+ 9.4. Best Current Practices.................................... 45
+ 9.5. RARE Technical Reports.................................... 46
+ 10. Perusing the Internet......................................... 46
+ 11. Acronyms and Abbreviations.................................... 48
+ 12. Security Considerations....................................... 49
+ 13. Acknowledgments............................................... 49
+ 14. References.................................................... 49
+ 15. Authors' Address.............................................. 51
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ This memo is an introductory guide to some of the most commonly-
+ available TCP/IP and Internet tools and utilities that allow users to
+ access the wide variety of information on the network, from
+ determining if a particular host is up to viewing a multimedia thesis
+ on foreign policy. It also describes discussion lists accessible from
+ the Internet, ways to obtain Internet and TCP/IP documents, and some
+ resources that help users weave their way through the Internet. This
+ memo may be used as a tutorial for individual self-learning, a step-
+ by-step laboratory manual for a course, or as the basis for a site's
+ users manual. It is intended as a basic guide only and will refer to
+ other sources for more detailed information.
+
+2. Nomenclature
+
+ The following sections provide descriptions and detailed examples of
+ several TCP/IP utilities and applications, including the reproduction
+ of actual sessions using these utilities (with some extraneous
+ information removed). Each section describes a single TCP/IP-based
+ tool, it's application, and, in some cases, how it works. The text
+ description is usually followed by an actual sample session.
+
+ The sample dialogues shown below were obtained from a variety of
+ software and hardware systems, including AIX running on an IBM
+ RS/6000, Linux on an Intel 486, Multinet TCP/IP over VMS on a VAX,
+ and FTP Software's OnNet (formerly PC/TCP) running on a DOS/Windows
+ PC. While the examples below can be used as a guide to using and
+ learning about the capabilities of TCP/IP tools, the reader should
+ understand that not all of these utilities may be found at all TCP/IP
+ hosts nor in all commercial software packages. Furthermore, the user
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ interface for different packages will be different and the actual
+ command line may appear differently than shown here; this will be
+ particularly true for graphical user interfaces running over Windows,
+ X-Windows, OS/2, or Macintosh systems. Windows-based sessions are not
+ shown in this RFC because of the desire to have a text version of
+ this document; in addition, most GUI-based TCP/IP packages obscure
+ some of the detail that is essential for understanding what is really
+ happening when you click on a button or drag a file. The Internet has
+ many exciting things to offer but standardized interfaces to the
+ protocols is not yet one of them! This guide will not provide any
+ detail or motivation about the Internet Protocol Suite; more
+ information about the TCP/IP protocols and related issues may be
+ found in RFC 1180 [29], Comer [6], Feit [7], Kessler [14], and
+ Stevens [30].
+
+ In the descriptions below, commands are shown in a Courier font
+ (Postscript and HTML versions); items appearing in square brackets
+ ([]) are optional, the vertical-bar (|) means "or," parameters
+ appearing with no brackets or within curly brackets ({}) are
+ mandatory, and parameter names that need to be replaced with a
+ specific value will be shown in italics (Postscript and HTML
+ versions) or within angle brackets (<>, text version). In the sample
+ dialogues, user input is in bold (Postscript and HTML versions) or
+ denoted with asterisks (**) in the margin (text version).
+
+3. Finding Information About Internet Hosts and Domains
+
+ There are several tools that let you learn information about Internet
+ hosts and domains. These tools provide the ability for an application
+ or a user to perform host name/address reconciliation (NSLOOKUP),
+ determine whether another host is up and available (PING), learn
+ about another host's users (Finger), and learn the route that packets
+ will take to another host (Traceroute).
+
+3.1. NSLOOKUP
+
+ NSLOOKUP is the name server lookup program that comes with many
+ TCP/IP software packages. A user can use NSLOOKUP to examine entries
+ in the Domain Name System (DNS) database that pertain to a particular
+ host or domain; one common use is to determine a host system's IP
+ address from its name or the host's name from its IP address. The
+ general form of the command to make a single query is:
+
+ nslookup [IP_address|host_name]
+
+ If the program is started without any parameters, the user will be
+ prompted for input; the user can enter either an IP address or host
+ name at that time, and the program will respond with the name and
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ address of the default name sever, the name server actually used to
+ resolve each request, and the IP address and host name that was
+ queried. Exit is used to quit the NSLOOKUP application.
+
+ Three simple queries are shown in the example below:
+
+ 1 Requests the address of the host named www.hill.com, the World
+ Wide Web server at Hill Associates. As it turns out, this is not
+ the true name of the host, but an alias. The full name of the host
+ and the IP address are listed by NSLOOKUP.
+
+ 2 Requests the address of host syrup.hill.com, which is the same
+ host as in the first query. Note that NSLOOKUP provides a "non-
+ authoritative" answer. Since NSLOOKUP just queried this same
+ address, the information is still in its cache memory. Rather than
+ send additional messages to the name server, the answer is one
+ that it remembers from before; the server didn't look up the
+ information again, however, so it is not guaranteed to still be
+ accurate (because the information might have changed within the
+ last few milliseconds!).
+
+ 3 Requests the name of the host with the given IP address. The
+ result points to the Internet gateway to Australia, munnari.oz.au.
+
+ One additional query is shown in the dialogue below. NSLOOKUP
+ examines information that is stored by the DNS. The default NSLOOKUP
+ queries examine basic address records (called "A records") to
+ reconcile the host name and IP address, although other information is
+ also available. In the final query below, for example, the user wants
+ to know where electronic mail addressed to the hill.com domain
+ actually gets delivered, since hill.com is not the true name of an
+ actual host. This is accomplished by changing the query type to look
+ for mail exchange (MX) records by issuing a set type command (which
+ must be in lower case). The query shows that mail addressed to
+ hill.com is actually sent to a mail server called mail.hill.com. If
+ that system is not available, mail delivery will be attempted to
+ first mailme.hill.com and then to netcomsv.netcom.com; the order of
+ these attempts is controlled by the "preference" value. This query
+ also returns the name of the domain's name servers and all associated
+ IP addresses.
+
+ The DNS is beyond the scope of this introduction, although more
+ information about the concepts and structure of the DNS can be found
+ in STD 13/RFC 1034 [19], RFC 1591 [21], and Kessler [16]. The help
+ command can be issued at the program prompt for information about
+ NSLOOKUP's more advanced commands.
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ TECHNICAL NOTE: There are other tools that might be available on your
+ system or with your software for examining the DNS. Alternatives to
+ NSLOOKUP include HOST and DIG.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**SMCVAX$ nslookup
+
+ Default Server: ns1.ner.bbnplanet.net
+ Address: 192.52.71.5
+
+**> www.hill.com
+ Name: syrup.hill.com
+ Address: 199.182.20.3
+ Aliases: www.hill.com
+
+**> syrup.hill.com
+ Non-authoritative answer:
+ Name: syrup.hill.com
+ Address: 199.182.20.3
+
+**> 128.250.1.21
+ Name: munnari.OZ.AU
+ Address: 128.250.1.21
+
+**> set type=MX
+**> hill.com
+ hill.com preference = 20, mail exchanger = mail.hill.com
+ hill.com preference = 40, mail exchanger = mailme.hill.com
+ hill.com preference = 60, mail exchanger = netcomsv.netcom.com
+ hill.com nameserver = nameme.hill.com
+ hill.com nameserver = ns1.noc.netcom.net
+ hill.com nameserver = ns.netcom.com
+ mail.hill.com internet address = 199.182.20.4
+ mailme.hill.com internet address = 199.182.20.3
+ netcomsv.netcom.com internet address = 192.100.81.101
+ ns1.noc.netcom.net internet address = 204.31.1.1
+ ns.netcom.com internet address = 192.100.81.105
+
+**> exit
+ SMCVAX$
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+3.2. Ping
+
+ Ping, reportedly an acronym for the Packet Internetwork Groper, is
+ one of the most widely available tools bundled with TCP/IP software
+ packages. Ping uses a series of Internet Control Message Protocol
+ (ICMP) [22] Echo messages to determine if a remote host is active or
+ inactive, and to determine the round-trip delay in communicating with
+ it.
+
+ A common form of the Ping command, showing some of the more commonly
+ available options that are of use to general users, is:
+
+ ping [-q] [-v] [-R] [-c Count] [-i Wait] [-s PacketSize] Host
+
+ where:
+
+ -q Quiet output; nothing is displayed except summary
+ lines at startup and completion
+
+ -v Verbose output, which lists ICMP packets that are
+ received in addition to Echo Responses
+
+ -R Record route option; includes the RECORD_ROUTE
+ option in the Echo Request packet and displays the route buffer
+ on returned packets
+
+ -c Count Specifies the number of Echo Requests to be sent
+ before concluding test (default is to run until interrupted
+ with a control-C)
+
+ -i Wait Indicates the number of seconds to wait between
+ sending each packet (default = 1)
+
+ -s PacketSize Specifies the number of data bytes to be sent;
+ the total ICMP packet size will be PacketSize+8 bytes due to
+ the ICMP header (default = 56, or a 64 byte packet)
+
+ Host IP address or host name of target system
+
+ In the first example below, the user pings the host
+ thumper.bellcore.com, requesting that 6 (-c) messages be sent, each
+ containing 64 bytes (-s) of user data. The display shows the round-
+ trip delay of each Echo message returned to the sending host; at the
+ end of the test, summary statistics are displayed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ In the second example, the user pings the host smcvax.smcvt.edu,
+ requesting that 10 messages be sent in quite mode (-q). In this case,
+ a summary is printed at the conclusion of the test and individual
+ responses are not listed.
+
+ TECHNICAL NOTE: Older versions of the Ping command, which are still
+ available on some systems, had the following general format:
+
+ ping [-s] {IP_address|host_name} [PacketSize] [Count]
+
+ In this form, the optional "-s" string tells the system to
+ continually send an ICMP Echo message every second; the optional
+ PacketSize parameter specifies the number of bytes in the Echo
+ message (the message will contain PacketSize-8 bytes of data; the
+ default is 56 bytes of data and a 64 byte message); and the optional
+ Count parameter indicates the number of Echo messages to send before
+ concluding the test (the default is to run the test continuously
+ until interrupted).
+
+ ====================================================================
+**syrup:/home$ ping -c 6 -s 64 thumper.bellcore.com
+ PING thumper.bellcore.com (128.96.41.1): 64 data bytes
+ 72 bytes from 128.96.41.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=240 time=641.8 ms
+ 72 bytes from 128.96.41.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=240 time=1072.7 ms
+ 72 bytes from 128.96.41.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=240 time=1447.4 ms
+ 72 bytes from 128.96.41.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=240 time=758.5 ms
+ 72 bytes from 128.96.41.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=240 time=482.1 ms
+
+ --- thumper.bellcore.com ping statistics ---
+ 6 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 16% packet loss
+ round-trip min/avg/max = 482.1/880.5/1447.4 ms
+
+**syrup:/home$ ping -q -c 10 smcvax.smcvt.edu
+ PING smcvax.smcvt.edu (192.80.64.1): 56 data bytes
+
+ --- smcvax.smcvt.edu ping statistics ---
+
+ 10 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 20% packet loss
+ round-trip min/avg/max = 217.8/246.4/301.5 ms
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 7]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+3.3. Finger
+
+ The Finger program may be used to find out who is logged in on
+ another system or to find out detailed information about a specific
+ user. This command has also introduced a brand new verb; fingering
+ someone on the Internet is not necessarily a rude thing to do! The
+ Finger User Information Protocol is described in RFC 1288 [32]. The
+ most general format of the Finger command is:
+
+ finger [username]@host_name
+
+ The first example below shows the result of fingering an individual
+ user at a remote system. The first line of the response shows the
+ username, the user's real name, their process identifier,
+ application, and terminal port number. Additional information may be
+ supplied at the option of the user in "plan" and/or "project" files
+ that they supply; these files are often named PLAN.TXT or
+ PROJECT.TXT, respectively, and reside in a user's root directory (or
+ somewhere in an appropriate search path).
+
+ The second example shows the result of fingering a remote system.
+ This lists all of the processes currently running at the fingered
+ system or other information, depending upon how the remote system's
+ administrator set up the system to respond to the Finger command.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**C:> finger kumquat@smcvax.smcvt.edu
+ [smcvax.smcvt.edu]
+ KUMQUAT Gary Kessler KUMQUAT not logged in
+ Last login Fri 16-Sep-1996 3:47PM-EDT
+
+ Plan:
+
+ ===================================================================
+ Gary C. Kessler
+ Adjunct Faculty Member, Graduate College
+
+ INTERNET: kumquat@smcvt.edu
+
+ ===================================================================
+
+**C:> finger @smcvax.smcvt.edu
+ [smcvax.smcvt.edu]
+ Tuesday, September 17, 1996 10:12AM-EDT Up 30 09:40:18
+ 5+1 Jobs on SMCVAX Load ave 0.16 0.19 0.21
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 8]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ User Personal Name Subsys Terminal Console Location
+ GOODWIN Dave Goodwin LYNX 6.NTY2 waldo.smcvt.edu
+ JAT John Tronoan TELNET 1.TXA5
+ HELPDESK System Manager EDT 2:08.NTY4 [199.93.35.182]
+ SMITH Lorraine Smith PINE .NTY3 [199.93.34.139]
+ SYSTEM System Manager MAIL 23.OPA0 The VAX Console
+ *DCL* SMCVX1$OPA0 The VAX Console
+ ====================================================================
+
+3.4. Traceroute
+
+ Traceroute is another common TCP/IP tool, this one allowing users to
+ learn about the route that packets take from their local host to a
+ remote host. Although used often by network and system managers as a
+ simple, yet powerful, debugging tool, traceroute can be used by end
+ users to learn something about the ever-changing structure of the
+ Internet.
+
+ The classic Traceroute command has the following general format
+ (where "#" represents a positive integer value associated with the
+ qualifier):
+
+ traceroute [-m #] [-q #] [-w #] [-p #] {IP_address|host_name}
+
+ where
+ -m is the maximum allowable TTL value, measured as
+ the number of hops allowed before the program terminates
+ (default = 30)
+ -q is the number of UDP packets that will be sent with
+ each time-to-live setting (default = 3)
+ -w is the amount of time, in seconds, to wait for
+ an answer from a particular router before giving up
+ (default= 5)
+ -p is the invalid port address at the remote host
+ (default = 33434)
+
+ The Traceroute example below shows the route between a host at St.
+ Michael's College (domain smcvt.edu) and a host at Hill Associates
+ (www.hill.com), both located in Colchester, VT but served by
+ different Internet service providers (ISP).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 9]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ 1 St. Michael's College is connected to the Internet via BBN
+ Planet; since the mid-1980s, BBN operated the NSF's regional ISP,
+ called the New England Academic and Research Network (NEARNET),
+ which was renamed in 1994. The first hop, then, goes to St. Mike's
+ BBN Planet gateway router (smc.bbnplanet.net). The next hop goes
+ to another BBN Planet router (denoted here only by IP address
+ since a name was not assigned to the device), until the packet
+ reaches the BBN Planet T3 backbone.
+
+ 2 The packet takes two hops through routers at BBN Planet's
+ Cambridge (MA) facility and is then forwarded to BBN Planet in New
+ York City, where the packet takes four more hops. The packet is
+ then forwarded to BBN Planet in College Park (MD).
+
+ 3 The packet is sent to BBN Planet's router at MAE-East, MFS
+ Datanet's Network Access Point (NAP) in Washington, D.C. MAE
+ stands for Metropolitan Area Exchange, and is a Fiber Distributed
+ Data Interface (FDDI) ring interconnecting routers from
+ subscribing ISPs. The packet is then forwarded to NETCOM, Hill
+ Associates' ISP.
+
+ 4 The packet now travels through NETCOM's T3 backbone, following
+ links from Washington, D.C. to Chicago to Santa Clara (CA), to San
+ Jose (CA).
+
+ 5 The packet is now sent to Hill Associates router (again, a
+ system designated only by an IP address since the NETCOM side of
+ the router was not named) and then passed to the target system.
+ Note that the host's real name is not www.hill.com, but
+ syrup.hill.com.
+
+ TECHNICAL NOTE: The original version of Traceroute works by sending a
+ sequence of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagrams to an invalid port
+ address at the remote host. Using the default settings, three
+ datagrams are sent, each with a Time-To-Live (TTL) field value set to
+ one. The TTL value of 1 causes the datagram to "timeout" as soon as
+ it hits the first router in the path; this router will then respond
+ with an ICMP Time Exceeded Message (TEM) indicating that the datagram
+ has expired. Another three UDP messages are now sent, each with the
+ TTL value set to 2, which causes the second router to return ICMP
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 10]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ TEMs. This process continues until the packets actually reach the
+ other destination. Since these datagrams are trying to access an
+ invalid port at the destination host, ICMP Destination Unreachable
+ Messages are returned indicating an unreachable port; this event
+ signals the Traceroute program that it is finished! The Traceroute
+ program displays the round-trip delay associated with each of the
+ attempts. (Note that some current implementations of Traceroute use
+ the Record-Route option in IP rather than the method described
+ above.)
+
+ As an aside, Traceroute did not begin life as a general-purpose
+ utility, but as a quick-and-dirty debugging aid used to find a
+ routing problem. The code (complete with comments!) is available by
+ anonymous FTP in the file traceroute.tar.Z from the host
+ ftp.ee.lbl.gov. (See Section 4.2 for a discussion of anonymous FTP.)
+
+ ====================================================================
+**SMCVAX$ traceroute www.hill.com
+ traceroute to syrup.hill.com (199.182.20.3), 30 hops max, 38 byte
+ packets
+ 1 smc.bbnplanet.net (192.80.64.5) 10 ms 0 ms 0 ms
+ 2 131.192.48.105 (131.192.48.105) 0 ms 10 ms 10 ms
+ 3 cambridge1-cr4.bbnplanet.net (199.94.204.77) 40 ms 40 ms 50 ms
+ 4 cambridge1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.205) 30 ms 50 ms 50 ms
+ 5 nyc1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.121) 60 ms 60 ms 40 ms
+ 6 nyc2-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.154) 60 ms 50 ms 60 ms
+ 7 nyc2-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.154) 60 ms 40 ms 50 ms
+ 8 nyc2-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.54) 70 ms 60 ms 30 ms
+ 9 collegepk-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.21) 50 ms 50 ms 40 ms
+ 10 maeeast.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.18) 200 ms 170 ms 210 ms
+ 11 fddi.mae-east.netcom.net (192.41.177.210) 60 ms 50 ms 70 ms
+ 12 t3-2.was-dc-gw1.netcom.net (163.179.220.181) 70 ms 60 ms 50 ms
+ 13 t3-2.chw-il-gw1.netcom.net (163.179.220.186) 70 ms 80 ms 80 ms
+ 14 t3-2.scl-ca-gw1.netcom.net (163.179.220.190) 140 ms 110 ms 160
+ ms
+ 15 t3-1.sjx-ca-gw1.netcom.net (163.179.220.193) 120 ms 130 ms 120
+ ms
+ 16 198.211.141.8 (198.211.141.8) 220 ms 260 ms 240 ms
+ 17 syrup.hill.com (199.182.20.3) 220 ms 240 ms 219 ms
+ SMCVAX$
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 11]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+4. The Two Fundamental Tools
+
+ The two most basic tools for Internet applications are TELNET and the
+ File Transfer Protocol (FTP). TELNET allows a user to login to a
+ remote host over a TCP/IP network, while FTP, as the name implies,
+ allows a user to move files between two TCP/IP hosts. These two
+ utilities date back to the very early days of the ARPANET.
+
+4.1. TELNET
+
+ TELNET [27] is TCP/IP's virtual terminal protocol. Using TELNET, a
+ user connected to one host can login to another host, appearing like
+ a directly-attached terminal at the remote system; this is TCP/IP's
+ definition of a virtual terminal. The general form of the TELNET
+ command is:
+
+ telnet [IP_address|host_name] [port]
+
+ As shown, a TELNET connection is initiated when the user enters the
+ telnet command and supplies either a host_name or IP_address; if
+ neither are given, TELNET will ask for one once the application
+ begins.
+
+ In the example below, a user of a PC uses TELNET to attach to the
+ remote host smcvax.smcvt.edu. Once logged in via TELNET, the user can
+ do anything on the remote host that would be possible if connected
+ via a directly-attached terminal or via modem. The commands that are
+ subsequently used are those available on the remote system to which
+ the user is attached. In the sample dialogue below, the user attached
+ to SMCVAX will use basic VAX/VMS commands:
+
+ o The dir command lists the files having a "COM" file extension.
+ o The mail command enters the VMS MAIL subsystem; the dir command
+ here lists waiting mail.
+ o Ping checks the status of another host.
+
+ When finished, the logout command logs the user off the remote host;
+ TELNET automatically closes the connection to the remote host and
+ returns control to the local system.
+
+ It is important to note that TELNET is a very powerful tool, one that
+ may provide users with access to many Internet utilities and services
+ that might not be otherwise available. Many of these features are
+ accessed by specifying a port number with the TELNET command, in
+ addition to a host's address, and knowledge of port numbers provides
+ another mechanism for users to access information with TELNET.
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 12]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ This guide discusses several TCP/IP and Internet utilities that require
+ local client software, such as Finger, Whois, Archie, and Gopher. But
+ what if your software does not include a needed client? In some cases,
+ TELNET may be used to access a remote client and provide the same
+ functionality.
+
+ This is done by specifying a port number with the TELNET command. Just
+ as TCP/IP hosts have a unique IP address, applications on the host are
+ associated with an address, called a port. Finger (see Section 3.3
+ above), for example, is associated with the well-known port number 79.
+ In the absence of a Finger client, TELNETing to port 79 at a remote host
+ may provide the same information. You can finger another host with
+ TELNET by using a command like:
+
+ telnet host_name 79
+
+ Other well-known TCP port numbers include 25 (Simple Mail Transfer
+ Protocol), 43 (whois), 80 (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and 119
+ (Network News Transfer Protocol).
+
+ Some services are available on the Internet using TELNET and special
+ port numbers. A geographical information database, for example, may
+ be accessed by TELNETing to port 3000 at host martini.eecs.umich.edu
+ and current weather information is available at port 3000 at host
+ downwind.sprl.umich.edu.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**C:> telnet smcvax.smcvt.edu
+ FTP Software PC/TCP tn 3.10 01/24/95 02:40
+ Copyright (c) 1986-1995 by FTP Software, Inc. All rights reserved
+
+ - Connected to St. Michael's College -
+
+**Username: kumquat
+**Password:
+
+ St. Michael's College VAX/VMS System.
+ Node SMCVAX.
+
+ Last interactive login on Monday, 16-SEP-1996 15:47
+ Last non-interactive login on Wednesday, 6-MAR-1996 08:19
+
+ You have 1 new Mail message.
+
+ Good Afternoon User KUMQUAT. Logged in on 17-SEP-1996 at 1:10 PM.
+
+ User [GUEST,KUMQUAT] has 3225 blocks used, 6775 available,
+ of 10000 authorized and permitted overdraft of 100 blocks on $1$DIA2
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 13]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ To see a complete list of news items, type: NEWS DIR
+ To read a particular item, type NEWS followed by
+ the name of the item you wish to read.
+
+**SMCVAX$ dir *.com
+ Directory $1$DIA2:[GUEST.KUMQUAT]
+ BACKUP.COM;24 24 16-JUL-1990 16:22:46.68 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ DELTREE.COM;17 3 16-JUL-1990 16:22:47.58 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ EXPANDZ.COM;7 2 22-FEB-1993 10:00:04.35 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ FTSLOGBLD.COM;3 1 16-JUL-1990 16:22:48.57 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ FTSRRR.COM;2 1 16-JUL-1990 16:22:48.73 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ LOGIN.COM;116 5 1-DEC-1993 09:33:21.61 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ SNOOPY.COM;6 1 16-JUL-1990 16:22:52.06 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ SYLOGIN.COM;83 8 16-JUL-1990 16:22:52.88 (RWED,RWED,RE,RE)
+ SYSTARTUP.COM;88 15 16-JUL-1990 16:22:53.21 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ WATCH_MAIL.COM;1 173 10-MAY-1994 09:59:52.65 (RWED,RWED,RE,)
+ Total of 10 files, 233 blocks.
+
+**SMCVAX$ mail
+ You have 1 new message.
+**MAIL> dir
+ NEWMAIL
+ # From Date Subject
+ 1 IN%"ibug@plainfield. 15-SEP-1996 ANNOUNCE: Burlington WWW Conference
+**MAIL> exit
+
+**SMCVAX$ ping kestrel.hill.com /n=5
+ PING HILL.COM (199.182.20.24): 56 data bytes
+ 64 bytes from 199.182.20.24: icmp_seq=0 time=290 ms
+ 64 bytes from 199.182.20.24: icmp_seq=1 time=260 ms
+ 64 bytes from 199.182.20.24: icmp_seq=2 time=260 ms
+ 64 bytes from 199.182.20.24: icmp_seq=3 time=260 ms
+ 64 bytes from 199.182.20.24: icmp_seq=4 time=260 ms
+
+ ----KESTREL.HILL.COM PING Statistics----
+ 5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
+ round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 260/266/290
+
+**SMCVAX$ logout
+ KUMQUAT logged out at 17-SEP-1996 13:17:04.29
+
+ Connection #0 closed
+ C:>
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 14]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+4.2. FTP
+
+ FTP [26] is one of the most useful and powerful TCP/IP utilities for
+ the general user. FTP allows users to upload and download files
+ between local and remote hosts. Anonymous FTP, in particular, is
+ commonly available at file archive sites to allow users to access
+ files without having to pre-establish an account at the remote host.
+ TELNET might, in fact, be used for this purpose but TELNET gives the
+ user complete access to the remote system; FTP limits the user to
+ file transfer activities.
+
+ The general form of the FTP command is:
+
+ ftp [IP_address|host_name]
+
+ An FTP session can be initiated in several ways. In the example shown
+ below, an FTP control connection is initiated to a host (the Defense
+ Data Network's Network Information Center) by supplying a host name
+ with the FTP command; optionally, the host's IP address in dotted
+ decimal (numeric) form could be used. If neither host name nor IP
+ address are supplied in the command line, a connection to a host can
+ be initiated by typing open host_name or open IP_address once the FTP
+ application has been started.
+
+ The remote host will ask for a username and password. If a bona fide
+ registered user of this host supplies a valid username and password,
+ then the user will have access to any files and directories to which
+ this username has privilege. For anonymous FTP access, the username
+ anonymous is used. Historically, the password for the anonymous user
+ (not shown in actual use) has been guest, although most systems today
+ ask for the user's Internet e-mail address (and several sites attempt
+ to verify that packets are coming from that address before allowing
+ the user to login).
+
+ The "help ?" command may be used to obtain a list of FTP commands and
+ help topics available with your software; although not always shown,
+ nearly all TCP/IP applications have a help command. An example of the
+ help for FTP's type command is shown in the sample dialogue. This
+ command is very important one, by the way; if transferring a binary
+ or executable file, be sure to set the type to image (or binary on
+ some systems).
+
+ The dir command provides a directory listing of the files in the
+ current directory at the remote host; the UNIX ls command may also
+ usually be used. Note that an FTP data transfer connection is
+ established for the transfer of the directory information to the
+ local host. The output from the dir command will show a file listing
+ that is consistent with the native operating system of the remote
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 15]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ host. Although the TCP/IP suite is often associated with UNIX, it can
+ (and does) run with nearly all common operating systems. The
+ directory information shown in the sample dialogue happens to be in
+ UNIX format and includes the following information:
+
+ o File attributes. The first character identifies the type of file
+ entry as a directory (d), link or symbolic name (l), or individual
+ file (-). The next nine characters are the file access permissions
+ list; the first three characters are for the owner, the next three
+ for the owner's group, and the last three for all other users.
+ Three access privileges may be assigned to each file for each of
+ these roups: read (r), write (w), and execute (x).
+ o Number of entries, or hard links, in this structure. This value
+ will be a "1" if the entry refers to a file or link, or will be
+ the number of files in the listed directory.
+ o File owner
+ o File owner's group.
+ o File size, in bytes.
+ o Date and time of last modification. If the date is followed by a
+ timestamp, then the date is from the current year.
+ o File name.
+
+ After the directory information has been transferred, FTP closes the
+ data transfer connection.
+
+ The command cd is used to change to another working directory, in
+ this case the rfc directory (note that file and directory names may
+ be case-sensitive). As in DOS, "cd .." will change to the parent of
+ the current directory. The CWD command successful is the only
+ indication that the user's cd command was correctly executed; the
+ show-directory (may be truncated to fewer characters, as shown)
+ command, if available, may be used to see which working directory you
+ are in.
+
+ Another dir command is used to find all files with the name
+ rfc173*.txt; note the use of the * wildcard character. We can now
+ copy (download) the file of choice (RFC 1739 is the previous version
+ of this primer) by using the get (or receive) command, which has the
+ following general format:
+
+ get remote_file_name local_file_name
+
+ FTP opens another data transfer connection for this file transfer
+ purpose; note that the effective data transfer rate is 93.664 kbps.
+
+ FTP's put (or send) command allows uploading from the local host to
+ the remote. Put is often not available when using anonymous FTP.
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 16]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Finally, we terminate the FTP connection by using the close command.
+ The user can initiate another FTP connection using the open command
+ or can leave FTP by issuing a quit command. Quit can also be used to
+ close a connection and terminate a session.
+
+ TECHNICAL NOTE: It is important to note that different FTP packages
+ have different commands available and even those with similar names
+ may act differently. In the example shown here (using MultiNet for
+ VMS), the show command will display the current working directory; in
+ FTP Software's OnNet, show will display a file from the remote host
+ at the local host. Some packages have nothing equivalent to either of
+ these commands.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**SMCVAX$ ftp nic.ddn.mil
+ SMCVAX.SMCVT.EDU MultiNet FTP user process 3.4(111)
+ Connection opened (Assuming 8-bit connections)
+ <*****Welcome to the DOD Network Information Center*****
+ < *****Login with username "anonymous" and password "guest"
+**Username: anonymous
+ <Guest login ok, send "guest" as password.
+**Password: guest <--- Not displayed
+ <Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> help type
+ TYPE
+ Set the transfer type to type.
+
+ Format
+ TYPE type
+
+ Additional information available:
+ Parameters Example Restrictions
+
+**TYPE Subtopic? parameters
+ TYPE
+
+ Parameters
+ type
+
+ Specify a value of ASCII, BACKUP, BINARY, IMAGE or LOGICAL-
+ BYTE.
+
+ Use TYPE ASCII (the default) for transferring text files.
+
+ Use TYPE BACKUP to set the transfer type to IMAGE and write the
+ local file with 2048-byte fixed length records. Use this
+ command to transfer VAX/VMS BACKUP save sets.
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 17]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Use TYPE BINARY to transfer binary files (same as TYPE IMAGE).
+
+ Use TYPE IMAGE to transfer binary files (for example, .EXE).
+
+ Use TYPE LOGICAL-BYTE to transfer binary files to or from a
+ TOPS-20 machine.
+
+**TYPE Subtopic?
+**Topic?
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> dir
+ <Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
+ total 58
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Sep 16 23:00 bcp
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 root 1 512 Mar 19 1996 bin
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 1536 Jul 15 23:00 ddn-news
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 demo
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 25 14:25 dev
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 10 512 Mar 19 1996 disn_info
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Sep 17 07:01 domain
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 etc
+ lrwxrwxrwx 1 nic 1 3 Mar 19 1996 fyi -> rfc
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 10 1024 Sep 16 23:00 gosip
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 home
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 lost+found
+ lrwxrwxrwx 1 nic 1 8 Mar 19 1996 mgt -> ddn-news
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 1024 Sep 13 12:11 netinfo
+ drwxr-xr-x 4 nic 1 512 May 3 23:00 netprog
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 1024 Mar 19 1996 protocols
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 pub
+ drwxr-xr-x 3 140 10 512 Aug 27 21:03 registrar
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 29696 Sep 16 23:00 rfc
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 5632 Sep 9 23:00 scc
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 1536 Sep 16 23:00 std
+ drwxr-xr-x 2 nic 1 1024 Sep 16 23:00 templates
+ drwxr-xr-x 3 nic 1 512 Mar 19 1996 usr
+ <Transfer complete.
+
+ 1437 bytes transferred at 33811 bps.
+ Run time = 20. ms, Elapsed time = 340. ms.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> cd rfc
+ <CWD command successful.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> show
+ <"/rfc" is current directory.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> dir rfc173*.txt
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 18]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ <Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 156660 Dec 20 1994 rfc1730.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 11433 Dec 20 1994 rfc1731.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 9276 Dec 20 1994 rfc1732.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 6205 Dec 20 1994 rfc1733.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 8499 Dec 20 1994 rfc1734.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 24485 Sep 15 1995 rfc1735.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 22415 Feb 8 1995 rfc1736.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 16337 Dec 15 1994 rfc1737.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 51348 Dec 15 1994 rfc1738.txt
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 nic 10 102676 Dec 21 1994 rfc1739.txt
+ <Transfer complete.
+ 670 bytes transferred at 26800 bps.
+ Run time = 10. ms, Elapsed time = 200. ms.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> get rfc1739.txt primer.txt
+ <Opening ASCII mode data connection for rfc1739.txt (102676 bytes).
+ <Transfer complete.
+ 105255 bytes transferred at 93664 bps.
+ Run time = 130. ms, Elapsed time = 8990. ms.
+
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> quit
+ <Goodbye.
+ SMCVAX$
+ ====================================================================
+
+5. User Database Lookup Tools
+
+ Finding other users on the Internet is an art, not a science.
+ Although there is a distributed database listing all of the 16+
+ million hosts on the Internet, no similar database yet exists for the
+ tens of millions of users. While many commercial ISPs provide
+ directories of the users of their network, these databases are not
+ yet linked. The paragraphs below will discuss some of the tools
+ available for finding users on the Internet.
+
+5.1. WHOIS/NICNAME
+
+ WHOIS and NICNAME are TCP/IP applications that search databases to
+ find the name of network and system administrators, RFC authors,
+ system and network points-of-contact, and other individuals who are
+ registered in appropriate databases. The original NICNAME/WHOIS
+ protocol is described in RFC 954 [10].
+
+ WHOIS may be accessed by TELNETing to an appropriate WHOIS server and
+ logging in as whois (no password is required); the most common
+ Internet name server is located at the Internet Network Information
+ Center (InterNIC) at rs.internic.net. This specific database only
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 19]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ contains INTERNET domains, IP network numbers, and domain points of
+ contact; policies governing the InterNIC database are described in
+ RFC 1400 [31]. The MILNET database resides at nic.ddn.mil and PSI's
+ White Pages pilot service is located at psi.com.
+
+ Many software packages contain a WHOIS/NICNAME client that
+ automatically establishes the TELNET connection to a default name
+ server database, although users can usually specify any name server
+ database that they want.
+
+ The accompanying dialogues shows several types of WHOIS/NICNAME
+ information queries. In the session below, we request information
+ about an individual (Denis Stratford) by using WHOIS locally, a
+ specific domain (hill.com) by using NICNAME locally, and a network
+ address (199.182.20.0) and high-level domain (com) using TELNET to a
+ WHOIS server.
+
+ ====================================================================
+
+**SMCVAX$ whois stratford, denis
+ Stratford, Denis (DS378) denis@@SMCVAX.SMCVT.EDU
+ St. Michael's College
+ Jemery Hall, Room 274
+ Winooski Park
+ Colchester, VT 05439
+ (802) 654-2384
+
+ Record last updated on 02-Nov-92.
+ SMCVAX$
+
+
+**C:> nicname hill.com
+ [198.41.0.5]
+ Hill Associates (HILL-DOM)
+ 17 Roosevelt Hwy.
+ Colchester, Vermont 05446
+ US
+
+ Domain Name: HILL.COM
+
+ Administrative Contact:
+ Kessler, Gary C. (GK34) g.kessler@HILL.COM
+ 802-655-0940
+ Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
+ Monaghan, Carol A. (CAM4) c.monaghan@HILL.COM
+ 802-655-0940
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 20]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Billing Contact:
+ Parry, Amy (AP1257) a.parry@HILL.COM
+ 802-655-0940
+
+ Record last updated on 11-Jun-96.
+ Record created on 11-Jan-93.
+
+ Domain servers in listed order:
+
+ SYRUP.HILL.COM 199.182.20.3
+ NS1.NOC.NETCOM.NET 204.31.1.1
+
+
+**C:> telnet rs.internic.net
+ SunOS UNIX 4.1 (rs1) (ttypb)
+
+ ***********************************************************************
+ * -- InterNIC Registration Services Center --
+ *
+ * For wais, type: WAIS <search string> <return>
+ * For the *original* whois type: WHOIS [search string] <return>
+ * For referral whois type: RWHOIS [search string] <return>
+ *
+ **********************************************************************
+ Please be advised that use constitutes consent to monitoring
+ (Elec Comm Priv Act, 18 USC 2701-2711)
+
+**[vt220] InterNIC > whois
+ InterNIC WHOIS Version: 1.2 Wed, 18 Sep 96 09:49:50
+
+**Whois: 199.182.20.0
+ Hill Associates (NET-HILLASSC)
+ 17 Roosevelt Highway
+ Colchester, VT 05446
+
+ Netname: HILLASSC
+ Netnumber: 199.182.20.0
+
+ Coordinator:
+ Monaghan, Carol A. (CAM4) c.monaghan@HILL.COM
+ 802-655-0940
+
+ Record last updated on 17-May-94.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 21]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+**Whois: com-dom
+ Commercial top-level domain (COM-DOM)
+ Network Solutions, Inc.
+ 505 Huntmar park Dr.
+ Herndon, VA 22070
+
+ Domain Name: COM
+
+ Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
+ Network Solutions, Inc. (HOSTMASTER) hostmaster@INTERNIC.NET
+ (703) 742-4777 (FAX) (703) 742-4811
+
+ Record last updated on 02-Sep-94.
+ Record created on 01-Jan-85.
+
+ Domain servers in listed order:
+
+ A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 198.41.0.4
+ H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 128.63.2.53
+ B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 128.9.0.107
+ C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 192.33.4.12
+ D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 128.8.10.90
+ E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 192.203.230.10
+ I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 192.36.148.17
+ F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 192.5.5.241
+ G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET 192.112.36.4
+
+**Would you like to see the known domains under this top-level domain? n
+
+**Whois: exit
+
+**[vt220] InterNIC > quit
+
+ Wed Sep 18 09:50:29 1996 EST
+
+ Connection #0 closed
+ C:>
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 22]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+5.2. KNOWBOT
+
+ KNOWBOT is an automated username database search tool that is related
+ to WHOIS. The Knowbot Information Service (KIS), operated by the
+ Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) in Reston,
+ Virginia, provides a simple WHOIS-like interface that allows users to
+ query several Internet user databases (White Pages services) all at
+ one time. A single KIS query will automatically search the InterNIC,
+ MILNET, MCImail, and PSI White Pages Pilot Project; other databases
+ may also be included.
+
+ KNOWBOT may be accessed by TELNETing to host info.cnri.reston.va.us.
+ The help command will supply sufficient information to get started.
+ The sample dialogue below shows use of the query command to locate a
+ user named "Steven Shepard"; this command automatically starts a
+ search through the default set of Internet databases.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**C:> telnet info.cnri.reston.va.us
+
+ Knowbot Information Service
+
+ KIS Client (V2.0). Copyright CNRI 1990. All Rights Reserved.
+
+ KIS searches various Internet directory services
+ to find someone's street address, email address and phone number.
+
+ Type 'man' at the prompt for a complete reference with examples.
+ Type 'help' for a quick reference to commands.
+ Type 'news' for information about recent changes.
+
+ Please enter your email address in our guest book...
+**(Your email address?) > s.shepard@hill.com
+
+**> query shepard, steven
+ Trying whois at ds.internic.net...
+ The ds.internic.net whois server is being queried:
+ Nothing returned.
+
+ The rs.internic.net whois server is being queried:
+
+ Shepard, Steven (SS2192) 708-810-5215
+ Shepard, Steven (SS1302) axisteven@AOL.COM (954) 974-4569
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 23]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ The nic.ddn.mil whois server is being queried:
+
+ Shepard, Steven (SS2192)
+ R.R. Donnelley & Sons
+ 750 Warrenville Road
+ Lisle, IL 60532
+ Trying mcimail at cnri.reston.va.us...
+ Trying ripe at whois.ripe.net...
+ Trying whois at whois.lac.net...
+
+ No match found for .SHEPARD,STEVEN
+
+**> quit
+ KIS exiting
+ Connection #0 closed
+ C:>
+ ====================================================================
+
+6. Information Servers
+
+ File transfer, remote login, and electronic mail remained the primary
+ applications of the ARPANET/Internet until the early 1990s. But as
+ the Internet user population shifted from hard-core computer
+ researchers and academics to more casual users, easier-to-use tools
+ were needed for the Net to become accepted as a useful resource. That
+ means making things easier to find. This section will discuss some of
+ the early tools that made it easier to locate and access information
+ on the Internet.
+
+6.1. Archie
+
+ Archie, developed in 1992 at the Computer Science Department at
+ McGill University in Montreal, allows users to find software, data,
+ and other information files that reside at anonymous FTP archive
+ sites; the name of the program, reportedly, is derived from the word
+ "archive" and not from the comic book character. Archie tracks the
+ contents of several thousand anonymous FTP sites containing millions
+ of files. The archie server automatically updates the information
+ from each registered site about once a month, providing relatively
+ up-to-date information without unduly stressing the network. Archie,
+ however, is not as popular as it once was and many sites have not
+ updated their information; as the examples below show, many of the
+ catalog listings are several years old.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 24]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Before using archie, you must identify a server address. The sites
+ below all support archie; most (but not all) archie sites support the
+ servers command which lists all known archie servers. Due to the
+ popularity of archie at some sites and its high processing demands,
+ many sites limit access to non-peak hours and/or limit the number of
+ simultaneous archie users. Available archie sites include:
+
+ archie.au archie.rediris.es
+ archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at archie.luth.se
+ archie.univie.ac.at archie.switch.ch
+ archie.uqam.ca archie.ncu.edu.tw
+ archie.funet.fi archie.doc.ic.ac.uk
+ archie.th-darmstadt.de archie.unl.edu
+ archie.ac.il archie.internic.net
+ archie.unipi.it archie.rutgers.edu
+ archie.wide.ad.jp archie.ans.net
+ archie.kr archie.sura.net
+ archie.sogang.ac.kr
+
+ All archie sites can be accessed using archie client software. Some
+ archie servers may be accessed using TELNET; when TELNETing to an
+ archie site, login as archie (you must use lower case) and hit
+ <ENTER> if a password is requested.
+
+ Once connected, the help command assists users in obtaining more
+ information about using archie. Two more useful archie commands are
+ prog, used to search for files in the database, and whatis, which
+ searches for keywords in the program descriptions.
+
+ In the accompanying dialogue, the set maxhits command is used to
+ limit the number of responses to any following prog commands; if this
+ is not done, the user may get an enormous amount of information. In
+ this example, the user issues a request to find entries related to
+ "dilbert"; armed with this information, a user can use anonymous FTP
+ to examine these directories and files.
+
+ The next request is for files with "tcp/ip" as a keyword descriptor.
+ These responses can be used for subsequent prog commands.
+
+ Exit archie using the exit command. At this point, TELNET closes the
+ connection and control returns to the local host.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 25]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Additional information about archie can be obtained by sending e-mail
+ to Bunyip Information Systems (archie-info@bunyip.com). Client
+ software is not required to use archie, but can make life a little
+ easier; some such software can be downloaded using anonymous FTP from
+ the /pub/archie/clients/ directory at ftp.sura.net (note that the
+ newest program in this directory is dated June 1994). Most shareware
+ and commercial archie clients hide the complexity described in this
+ section; users usually connect to a pre-configured archie server
+ merely by typing an archie command line.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**C:> telnet archie.unl.edu
+ SunOS UNIX (crcnis2)
+
+**login: archie
+**Password:
+
+ Welcome to the ARCHIE server at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln
+
+ # Bunyip Information Systems, 1993
+
+**unl-archie> help
+ These are the commands you can use in help:
+
+ . go up one level in the hierarchy
+
+ ? display a list of valid subtopics at the current level
+
+ <newline>
+ done, ^D, ^C quit from help entirely
+
+ <string> help on a topic or subtopic
+ Eg.
+ "help show"
+
+ will give you the help screen for the "show" command
+
+ "help set search"
+
+ Will give you the help information for the "search" variable.
+
+ The command "manpage" will give you a complete copy of the archie
+ manual page.
+**help> done
+
+**unl-archie> set maxhits 5
+
+**unl-archie> prog dilbert
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 26]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ # Search type: sub.
+ # Your queue position: 2
+ # Estimated time for completion: 00:20
+
+ Host ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
+ Last updated 10:08 25 Dec 1993
+
+ Location: /multimedia/images/gif/unindexed/931118
+ FILE -rw-r--r-- 9747 bytes 19:18 17 Nov 1993 dilbert.gif
+
+**unl-archie> whatis tcp/ip
+ RFC 1065 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
+ Structure and identification of management information for TCP/IP-based
+ internets. 1988 August; 21 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1155)
+ RFC 1066 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
+ Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
+ internets. 1988 August; 90 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1156)
+ RFC 1085 Rose, M.T. ISO presentation
+ services on top of TCP/IP based internets. 1988 December; 32 p.
+ RFC 1095 Warrier, U.S.; Besaw, L. Common
+ Management Information Services and Protocol over TCP/IP (CMOT). 1989
+ April; 67 p. (Obsoleted by RFC 1189)
+ RFC 1144 Jacobson, V. Compressing TCP/IP
+ headers for low-speed serial links. 1990 February; 43 p.
+ RFC 1147 Stine, R.H.,ed. FYI on a
+ network management tool catalog: Tools for monitoring and debugging
+ TCP/IP internets and interconnected devices. 1990 April; 126 p. (Also
+ FYI 2)
+ RFC 1155 Rose, M.T.; McCloghrie, K.
+ Structure and identification of management information for TCP/IP-based
+ internets. 1990 May; 22 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1065)
+ RFC 1156 McCloghrie, K.; Rose, M.T.
+ Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
+ internets. 1990 May; 91 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1066)
+ RFC 1158 Rose, M.T.,ed. Management
+ Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based internets:
+ MIB-II. 1990 May; 133 p.
+ RFC 1180 Socolofsky, T.J.; Kale, C.J.
+ TCP/IP tutorial. 1991 January; 28 p.
+ RFC 1195 Callon, R.W. Use of OSI
+ IS-IS for routing in TCP/IP and dual environments. 1990 December; 65 p.
+ RFC 1213 McCloghrie, K.; Rose,M.T.,eds.
+ Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based
+ internets:MIB-II. 1991 March; 70 p. (Obsoletes RFC 1158)
+ log_tcp Package to monitor tcp/ip connections
+ ping PD version of the ping(1) command. Send ICMP
+ ECHO requests to a host on the network (TCP/IP) to see whether it's
+ reachable or not
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 27]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+**unl-archie> exit
+ # Bye.
+
+ Connection #0 closed
+
+ C:>
+ ====================================================================
+
+6.2. Gopher
+
+ The Internet Gopher protocol was developed at the University of
+ Minnesota's Microcomputer Center in 1991, as a distributed
+ information search and retrieval tool for the Internet. Gopher is
+ described in RFC 1436 [1]; the name derives from the University's
+ mascot.
+
+ Gopher provides a tool so that publicly available information at a
+ host can be organized in a hierarchical fashion using simple text
+ descriptions, allowing files to be perused using a simple menu
+ system. Gopher also allows a user to view a file on demand without
+ requiring additional file transfer protocols. In addition, Gopher
+ introduced the capability of linking sites on the Internet, so that
+ each Gopher site can be used as a stepping stone to access other
+ sites and reducing the amount of duplicate information and effort on
+ the network.
+
+ Any Gopher site can be accessed using Gopher client software (or a
+ WWW browser). In many cases, users can access Gopher by TELNETing to
+ a valid Gopher location; if the site provides a remote Gopher client,
+ the user will see a text-based, menu interface. The number of Gopher
+ sites grew rapidly between 1991 and 1994, although growth tapered due
+ to the introduction of the Web; in any case, most Gopher sites have a
+ menu item that will allow you to identify other Gopher sites. If
+ using TELNET, login with the username gopher (this must be in
+ lowercase); no password is required.
+
+ In the sample dialogue below, the user attaches to the Gopher server
+ at the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC) by TELNETing to
+ ds.internic.net. With the menu interface shown here, the user merely
+ follows the prompts. Initially, the main menu will appear. Selecting
+ item 3 causes Gopher to seize and display the "InterNIC Registration
+ Services (NSI)" menu; move to the desired menu item by typing the
+ item number or by moving the pointer (-->) down to the desired entry
+ using the DOWN-ARROW key on the keyboard, and then hitting ENTER. To
+ quit the program at any time, press q (quit); ? and u will provide
+ help or go back up to the previous menu, respectively. Users may also
+ search for strings within files using the / command or download the
+ file being interrogated using the D command.
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 28]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Menu item 1 within the first submenu (selected in the dialogue shown
+ here) is titled "InterNIC Registration Archives." As its submenu
+ implies, this is a place to obtain files containing the InterNIC's
+ domain registration policies, domain data, registration forms, and
+ other information related to registering names and domains on the
+ Internet.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**SMCVAX$ telnet ds.internic.net
+
+ UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (ds2)
+
+**login: gopher
+
+ ********************************************************************
+ Welcome to the InterNIC Directory and Database Server.
+ ********************************************************************
+
+ Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
+ Home Gopher server: localhost
+
+ --> 1. About InterNIC Directory and Database Services/
+ 2. InterNIC Directory and Database Services (AT&T)/
+ 3. InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)/
+ 4. README
+
+ Press ? for Help, q to Quit Page: 1/1
+**View item number: 3
+
+
+ Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
+ InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)
+
+ --> 1. InterNIC Registration Archives/
+ 2. Whois Searches (InterNIC IP, ASN, DNS, and POC Registry) <?>
+
+ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
+**View item number: 1
+ Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3
+ InterNIC Registration Archives
+
+ --> 1. archives/
+ 2. domain/
+ 3. netinfo/
+ 4. netprog/
+ 5. policy/
+ 6. pub/
+ 7. templates/
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 29]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
+**q
+**Really quit (y/n) ? y
+
+ Connection closed by Foreign Host
+
+ SMCVAX$
+ ====================================================================
+
+6.3. VERONICA, JUGHEAD, and WAIS
+
+ The problem with being blessed with so much information from FTP,
+ archie, Gopher, and other sources is exactly that -- too much
+ information. To make it easier for users to locate the system on
+ which their desired information resides, a number of other tools have
+ been created.
+
+ VERONICA (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
+ Archives) was developed at the University of Nevada at Reno as an
+ archie- like adjunct to Gopher. As the number of Gopher sites quickly
+ grew after its introduction, it became increasingly harder to find
+ information in gopherspace since Gopher was designed to search a
+ single database at a time. VERONICA maintains an index of titles of
+ Gopher items and performs a keyword search on all of the Gopher sites
+ that it has knowledge of and access to, obviating the need for the
+ user to perform a menu-by-menu, site-by-site search for information.
+ When a user selects an item from the menu of a VERONICA search,
+ "sessions" are automatically established with the appropriate Gopher
+ servers, and a list of data items is returned to the originating
+ Gopher client in the form of a Gopher menu so that the user can
+ access the files. VERONICA is available as an option on many Gopher
+ servers.
+
+ Another Gopher-adjunct is JUGHEAD (Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy
+ Excavation And Display). JUGHEAD supports key word searches and the
+ use of logical operators (AND, OR, and NOT). The result of a JUGHEAD
+ search is a display of all menu items which match the search string
+ which are located in the University of Manchester and UMIST
+ Information Server, working from a static database that is re-created
+ every day. JUGHEAD is available from many Gopher sites, although
+ VERONICA may be a better tool for global searches.
+
+ The Wide Area Information Server (WAIS, pronounced "ways") was
+ initiated jointly by Apple Computer, Dow Jones, KMPG Peat Marwick,
+ and Thinking Machines Corp. It is a set of free-ware, share-ware, and
+ commercial software products for a wide variety of hardware/software
+ platforms, which work together to help users find information on the
+ Internet. WAIS provides a single interface through which a user can
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 30]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ access many different information databases. The user interface
+ allows a query to be formulated in English and the WAIS server will
+ automatically choose the appropriate databases to search. Further
+ information about WAIS can be obtained by reading the WAIS FAQ, from
+ host rtfm.mit.edu in file /pub/usenet/news.answers/wais-faq.
+
+7. The World Wide Web
+
+ The World Wide Web (WWW) is thought (erroneously) by many to be the
+ same thing as the Internet. But the confusion, in many ways, is
+ justified; by early 1996, the WWW accounted for over 40% of all of
+ the traffic on the Internet. In addition, the number of hosts on the
+ Internet named www has grown from several hundred in mid-1994 to
+ 17,000 in mid-1995 to 212,000 in mid-1996 to over 410,000 by early
+ 1997. The Web has made information on the Internet accessible to
+ users of all ages and computer skill levels. It has provided a
+ mechanism so that nearly anyone can become a content provider.
+ According to some, growth in the number of WWW users is unparalleled
+ by any other event in human history.
+
+ The WWW was developed in the early 1990s at the CERN Institute for
+ Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland. The Web was designed to
+ combine aspects of information retrieval with multimedia
+ communications, unlike archie and Gopher, which were primarily used
+ for the indexing of text-based files. The Web allows users to access
+ information in many different types of formats, including text,
+ sound, image, animation, and video. WWW treats all searchable
+ Internet files as hypertext documents. Hypertext is a term which
+ merely refers to text that contains pointers to other text, allowing
+ a user reading one document to jump to another document for more
+ information on a given topic, and then return to the same location in
+ the original document. WWW hypermedia documents are able to employ
+ images, sound, graphics, video, and animation in addition to text.
+
+ To access WWW servers, users must run client software called a
+ browser. The browser and server use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol
+ (HTTP) [3]. WWW documents are written in the Hypertext Markup
+ Language (HTML) [2, 20], a simple text-based formatting language that
+ is hardware and software platform-independent. Users point the
+ browser at some location using a shorthand format called a Uniform
+ Resource Locator (URL), which allows a WWW servers to obtain files
+ from any location on the public Internet using a variety of
+ protocols, including HTTP, FTP, Gopher, and TELNET.
+
+ Mosaic, developed in 1994 at the National Center for Supercomputer
+ Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
+ Champaign, was the first widely-used browser. Because it was
+ available at no cost over the Internet via anonymous FTP, and had a
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 31]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ version for Windows, Mac, and UNIX systems, Mosaic was probably the
+ single reason that the Web attracted so many users so quickly. The
+ most commonly used browsers today include the Netscape Navigator
+ (http://www.netscape.com), Microsoft's Internet Explorer
+ (http://www.microsoft.com), and NCSA Mosaic
+ (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/).
+
+ The WWW is ideally suited to a windows environment, or other point-
+ and-click graphical user interface. Nevertheless, several text-based
+ Web browsers do exist, although their usefulness is limited if trying
+ to obtain graphical images, or audio or video clips. One text-based
+ Web browser is Lynx, and an example of its use is shown below. Items
+ in square brackets in the sample dialogue are Lynx's way of
+ indicating an image or other display that cannot be shown on an ASCII
+ terminal.
+
+ ====================================================================
+**gck@zoo.uvm.edu> lynx www.hill.com
+ Getting http://www.hill.com/
+ Looking up www.hill.com.
+ Making HTTP connection to www.hill.com.Sending HTTP request.
+ HTTP request sent; waiting for response.Read 176 bytes of data.
+ 512 of 2502 bytes of data.
+ 1024 of 2502 bytes of data.
+ 536
+ 2048
+ 502
+ Data transfer complete
+
+ Hill Associates
+
+ [INLINE] Hill Associates, Inc.
+
+ Leaders in Telecommunications Training and Education Worldwide
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+ Hill Associates is an international provider of voice and data
+ telecommunications training and education. We cover the full breadth
+ of the field, including telephony, computer networks, ISDN, X.25 and
+ fast packet technologies (frame relay, SMDS, ATM), wireless, TCP/IP
+ and the Internet, LANs and LAN interconnection, legacy networks,
+ multimedia and virtual reality, broadband services, regulation,
+ service strategies, and network security.
+
+ Hill Associates' products and services include instructor-led,
+ computer-based (CBT), and hands-on workshop courses. Courseware
+ distribution media include audio tape, video tape, CD-ROM, and 3.5"
+ disks (PC).
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 32]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+ Hill Associates products, services, and corporate information
+
+ * About Hill Associates
+ * HAI Products and Services Catalog
+ * Datacomm/2000-ED Series
+ * Contacting Hill Associates
+ * Employment Opportunities
+ * HAI Personnel Home Pages
+
+ On-line information resources from Hill Associates
+
+ * HAI Telecommunications Acronym List
+ * Articles, Books, and On-Line Presentations by HAI Staff
+ * GCK's Miscellaneous Sites List...
+
+ Hill Associates is host to the:
+
+ * IEEE Local Computer Networks Conference Home Page...
+ * Vermont Telecommunications Resource Center
+ ________________________________________________________________
+
+ Please send any comments or suggestions to the HAI Webmaster. Come
+ back again soon!
+
+ Information at this site (c) 1994-1997 Hill Associates.
+
+
+ Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go
+ back.
+ H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search
+ [delete]=history list
+
+**G
+**URL to open: http://www.bbn.com
+ Getting http://www.bbn.com/
+ Looking up www.bbn.com.
+ Making HTTP connection to www.bbn.com.Sending HTTP request.
+ HTTP request sent; waiting for response.Read 119 bytes of data.
+ 500
+ 1000 bytes of data.
+ 2
+ 5
+ 925
+ Data transfer complete
+
+ BBN On The World Wide Web
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 33]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ [LINK]
+ BBN Reports Fourth-Quarter and Year-End 1996 Results
+
+ [INLINE]
+ [ISMAP]
+ [ISMAP]
+ [LINK]
+ [INLINE]
+
+ Who Won Our Sweepstakes
+ How The Noc Solves Problems
+ Noc Noc Who's There
+ BBN Planet Network Map
+
+ [LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK]
+ [LINK]
+ Contact BBN Planet
+ Directions to BBN
+ Text only index of the BBN Web site
+ |
+ Corporate Disclaimer
+ Send questions and comments about our site to Webmaster@bbn.com
+ (c) 1996 BBN Corporation
+
+
+ Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go
+ back.
+ H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search
+ [delete]=history list
+**Q
+
+ gck@zoo.uvm.edu>
+ ====================================================================
+
+7.1. Uniform Resource Locators
+
+ As more and more protocols have become available to identify files,
+ archive and server sites, news lists, and other information resources
+ on the Internet, it was inevitable that some shorthand would arise to
+ make it easier to designate these sources. The common shorthand
+ format is called the Uniform Resource Locator. The list below
+ provides information on how the URL format should be interpreted for
+ the protocols and resources that will be discussed in this document.
+ A complete description of the URL format may be found in [4].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 34]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ file://host/directory/file-name
+ Identifies a specific file. E.g., the file htmlasst in the edu
+ directory at host ftp.cs.da would be denoted, using the full URL
+ form: <URL:file://ftp.cs.da/edu/htmlasst>.
+
+ ftp://user:password@host:port/directory/file-name
+ Identifies an FTP site. E.g.:
+ ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Crypto/*.
+
+ gopher://host:port/gopher-path
+ Identifies a Gopher site and menu path; a "00" at the start of
+ the path indicates a directory and "11" indicates a file. E.g.:
+ gopher://info.umd.edu:901/00/info/Government/Factbook92.
+
+ http://host:port/directory/file-name?searchpart
+ Identifies a WWW server location. E.g.:
+ http://info.isoc.org/home.html.
+
+ mailto:e-mail_address
+ Identifies an individual's Internet mail address. E.g.:
+ mailto:s.shepard@hill.com.
+
+ telnet://user:password@host:port/
+ Identifies a TELNET location (the trailing "/" is optional).
+ E.g.: telnet://envnet:henniker@envnet.gsfc.nasa.gov.
+
+7.2. User Directories on the Web
+
+ While finding users on the Internet remains somewhat like alchemy if
+ using the tools and utilities mentioned earlier, the Web has added a
+ new dimension to finding people. Since 1995, many telephone companies
+ have placed national white and yellow page telephone directories on-
+ line, accessible via the World Wide Web.
+
+ For a while, it seemed that the easiest and most reliable approach to
+ finding people's e-mail address on the Internet was to look up their
+ telephone number on the Web, call them, and ask for their e-mail
+ address! More recently, however, many third parties are augmenting
+ the standard telephone directory with an e-mail directory. These
+ services primarily rely on users voluntarily registering, resulting
+ in incomplete databases because most users don't know about all of
+ the services. Nevertheless, some of the personal directory services
+ available via the Web with which e-mail addresses (and telephone
+ numbers) can be found include Four11 Directory Services
+ (http://www.Four11.com/), Excite
+ (http://www.excite.com/Reference/locators.html), and Yahoo! People
+ Search (http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/).
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 35]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ In addition, the Knowbot Information Service (KIS), CNRI's automated
+ username database search tool described earlier in this document, is
+ also available on the Web, at http://info.cnri.reston.va.us/kis.html.
+ Users can select several options for the KIS search, including the
+ InterNIC, MILNET, MCImail, and Latin American Internic databases;
+ UNIX finger and whois servers; and X.500 databases.
+
+7.3. Other Service Accessible Via the Web
+
+ Many of the other utilities described earlier in this document can
+ also be accessed via the WWW. In general, the Web browser acts as a
+ viewer to a remote client rather than requiring specialized software
+ on the user's system.
+
+ Several sites provide DNS information, obviating the need for a user
+ to have a local DNS client such as NSLOOKUP. The hosts
+ http://ns1.milepost.com/dns/ and
+ http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/dig.html are among the best DNS
+ sites, allowing the user to access all DNS information. The site
+ http://www.bankes.com/nslookup.htm allows users to do multiple,
+ sequential searches at a given domain. Other Web sites providing
+ simple DNS name/address translation services include
+ http://rhinoceros.cs.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp/dns.html,
+ http://www.engin.umich.edu/htbin/DNSquery, http://www.lublin.pl/cgi-
+ bin/ns/nsgate, and http://www.trytel.com/cgi-bin/weblookup.
+
+ Ping is another service available on the Web. The
+ http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/ping.html page allows a user to
+ select a host name, number of times to ping (1-10), and number of
+ seconds between each ping (1-10), and returns a set of summary
+ statistics. Other Web-based ping sites include
+ http://www.net.cmu.edu/bin/ping (sends ten pings, and reports the
+ times and min/max/avg summary statistics) and
+ http://www.uia.ac.be/cc/ping.html (indicates whether the target host
+ is alive or not).
+
+ Traceroute is also available on the Web. Unfortunately, these servers
+ trace the route from their host to a host that the user chooses,
+ rather than from the user's host to the target. Nevertheless,
+ interesting route information can be found at
+ http://www.net.cmu.edu/bin/traceroute. Traceroute service and a list
+ of a number of other traceroute sites on the Web can be found at
+ http://www.lublin.pl/cgi-bin/trace/traceroute.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 36]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Access to archie is also available via the WWW, where your browser
+ acts as the graphical interface to an archie server. To find a list
+ of archie servers, and to access them via the Web, point your browser
+ at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/FTP_Sites/
+ Searching/Archie/.
+
+ Finally, even Finger can be found on the World Wide Web; check out
+ http://sh1.ro.com/~mprevost/netutils/finger.html.
+
+8. Discussion Lists and Newsgroups
+
+ Among the most useful features of the Internet are the discussion
+ lists that have become available to allow individuals to discuss
+ topics of mutual concern. Discussion list topics range from SCUBA
+ diving and home brewing of beer to AIDS research and foreign policy.
+ Several, naturally, deal specifically with the Internet, TCP/IP
+ protocols, and the impact of new technologies.
+
+ Most of the discussion lists accessible from the Internet are
+ unmoderated, meaning that anyone can send a message to the list's
+ central repository and the message will then be automatically
+ forwarded to all subscribers of the list. These lists provide very
+ fast turn-around between submission of a message and delivery, but
+ often result in a lot of messages (including inappropriate junk mail,
+ or "spam"). A moderated list has an extra step; a human list
+ moderator examines all messages before they are forwarded to ensure
+ that the messages are appropriate to the list and not needlessly
+ inflammatory!
+
+ Users should be warned that some lists generate a large number of
+ messages each day. Before subscribing to too many lists, be sure that
+ you are aware of local policies and/or charges governing access to
+ discussion lists and e-mail storage.
+
+8.1. Internet Discussion Lists
+
+ Mail can be sent to almost all Internet lists at an address with the
+ following form:
+
+ list_name@host_name
+
+ The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or
+ handle any other administrative matter is to send a message to the
+ list administrator; do not send administrivia to the main list
+ address! The list administrator can usually be found at:
+
+ list_name-REQUEST@host_name
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 37]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ To subscribe to a list, it is often enough to place the word
+ "subscribe" in the main body of the message, although a line with the
+ format:
+
+ subscribe list_name your_full_name
+
+ will satisfy most mail servers. A similar message may be used to get
+ off a list; just use the word "unsubscribe" followed by the list
+ name. Not every list follows this convention, but it is a safe bet if
+ you don't have better information!
+
+8.2. LISTSERV
+
+ A large set of discussion groups is maintained using a program called
+ LISTSERV. LISTSERV is a service provided widely on BITNET and EARN,
+ although it is also available to Internet users. A LISTSERV User
+ Guide can be found on the Web at http://www.earn.net/lug/notice.html.
+
+ Mail can be sent to most LISTSERV lists at an address with the
+ following form:
+
+ list_name@host_name
+
+ The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or
+ handle any other administrative matter is to send commands in a
+ message to the LISTSERV server; do not send administrivia to the main
+ list address! The list server can usually be found at:
+
+ LISTSERV@host_name
+
+ LISTSERV commands are placed in the main body of e-mail messages sent
+ to an appropriate list server location. Once you have found a list of
+ interest, you can send a message to the appropriate address with any
+ appropriate command, such as:
+
+
+ subscribe list_name your_full_name Subscribe to a list
+ unsubscribe list_name Unsubscribe from a list
+ help Get help & a list of commands
+ index Get a list of LISTSERV files
+ get file_name Obtain a file from the server
+
+8.3. Majordomo
+
+ Majordomo is another popular list server for Internet discussion
+ lists. The Web site http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/ has a
+ large amount of information about Majordomo.
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 38]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Mail is sent to Majordomo lists using the same general address format
+ as above:
+
+ list_name@host_name
+
+ The common convention when users want to subscribe, unsubscribe, or
+ handle any other administrative matter is to send a message to the
+ Majordomo list server; do not send administrivia to the main list
+ address! The Majordomo server can usually be found at:
+
+ MAJORDOMO@host_name
+
+ Majordomo commands are placed in the main body of e-mail messages
+ sent to an appropriate list server location. Available commands
+ include:
+
+ help Get help & a list of commands
+ subscribe list_name your_e-mail
+ Subscribe to a list (E-mail address is optional)
+ unsubscribe list_name your_e-mail
+ Unsubscribe from a list (E-mail address is optional)
+ info list Sends an introduction about the specified list
+ lists Get a list of lists served by this Majordomo server
+
+8.4. Usenet
+
+ Usenet, also known as NETNEWS or Usenet news, is another information
+ source with its own set of special interest mailing lists organized
+ into newsgroups. Usenet originated on UNIX systems but has migrated
+ to many other types of hosts. Usenet clients, called newsreaders, use
+ the Network News Transfer Protocol [13] and are available for
+ virtually any operating system; several web browsers, in fact, have
+ this capability built in.
+
+ While Usenet newsgroups are usually accessible at Internet sites, a
+ prospective Usenet client host must have appropriate newsreader
+ software to be able to read news. Users will have to check with their
+ local host or network administrator to find out what Usenet
+ newsgroups are locally available, as well as the local policies for
+ using them.
+
+ Usenet newsgroup names are hierarchical in nature. The first part of
+ the name, called the hierarchy, provides an indication about the
+ general subject area. There are two types of hierarchies, called
+ mainstream and alternative; the total number of newsgroups is in the
+ thousands. The news.announce.newusers newsgroup is a good place for
+ new Usenet users to find a detailed introduction to the use of
+ Usenet, as well as an introduction to its culture.
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 39]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Usenet mainstream hierarchies are established by a process that
+ requires the approval of a majority of Usenet members. Most sites
+ that receive a NETNEWS feed receive all of these hierarchies, which
+ include:
+
+ comp Computers
+ misc Miscellaneous
+ news Network news
+ rec Recreation
+ sci Science
+ soc Social issues
+ talk Various discussion lists
+
+ The alternative hierarchies include lists that may be set up at any
+ site that has the server software and disk space. These lists are not
+ formally part of Usenet and, therefore, may not be received by all
+ sites getting NETNEWS. The alternative hierarchies include:
+
+ alt Alternate miscellaneous discussion lists
+ bionet Biology, medicine, and life sciences
+ bit BITNET discussion lists
+ biz Various business-related discussion lists
+ ddn Defense Data Network
+ gnu GNU lists
+ ieee IEEE information
+ info Various Internet and other networking information
+ k12 K-12 education
+ u3b AT&T 3B computers
+ vmsnet Digital's VMS operating system
+
+8.5 Finding Discussion Lists and Newsgroups
+
+ Armed with the rules for signing up for a discussion list or
+ accessing a newsgroup, how does one find an appropriate list given
+ one's interests?
+
+ There are tens of thousands of e-mail discussion lists on the
+ Internet. One List of Lists may be found using anonymous FTP at
+ ftp://sri.com/netinfo/interest-groups.txt; the List of Lists can be
+ searched using a Web browser by going to
+ http://catalog.com/vivian/interest-group-search.html. Other places to
+ look are the Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists index at
+ http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/byname.html and the LISZT
+ Directory of E-Mail Discussion Groups at http://www.liszt.com.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 40]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ To obtain a list of LISTSERV lists, send e-mail to
+ listserv@bitnic.cren.net with the command lists global in the body of
+ the message. Alternatively, look on the Web at
+ http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/index.html. The Web site
+ http://www.liszt.com has a Mailing Lists Database of lists served by
+ LISTSERV and Majordomo.
+
+ There are also thousands of Usenet newsgroups. One Usenet archive can
+ be found at gopher://rtfm.mit.edu/11//pub/usenet/news.answers; see
+ the /active-newsgroups and /alt-hierarchies subdirectories. Usenet
+ news may also be read at gopher://gopher.bham.ac.uk/11/Usenet. A good
+ Usenet search facility can be found at DejaNews at
+ http://www.dejanews.com/; messages can also be posted to Usenet
+ newsgroups from this site.
+
+ Note that there is often some overlap between Usenet newsgroups and
+ Internet discussion lists. Some individuals join both lists in these
+ circumstances or, often, there is cross-posting of messages. Some
+ Usenet newsgroup discussions are forwarded onto an Internet mailing
+ list by an individual site to provide access to those users who do
+ not have Usenet available.
+
+9. Internet Documentation
+
+ To fully appreciate and understand what is going on within the
+ Internet community, users might wish to obtain the occasional
+ Internet specification. The main body of Internet documents are
+ Request for Comments (RFCs), although a variety of RFC subsets have
+ been defined for various specific purposes. The sections below will
+ describe the RFCs and other documentation, and how to get them.
+
+ The Internet standardization process is alluded to in the following
+ sections. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the guiding
+ body for Internet standards; their Web site is http://www.ietf.org.
+ The IETF operates under the auspices of the Internet Society (ISOC),
+ which has a Web site at http://www.isoc.org. For complete, up-to-date
+ information on obtaining Internet documentation, go to the InterNIC's
+ Web site at http://ds.internic.net/ds/dspg0intdoc.html. The IETF's
+ history and role in the Internet today is described in Kessler [15].
+ For information on the organizations involved in the IETF standards
+ process, see RFC 2028 [11]. For information on the relationship
+ between the IETF and ISOC, see RFC 2031 [12].
+
+9.1. Request for Comments (RFCs)
+
+ RFCs are the body of literature comprising Internet protocols,
+ standards, research questions, hot topics, humor (especially those
+ dated 1 April), and general information. Each RFC is uniquely issued
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 41]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ a number which is never reused or reissued; if a document is revised,
+ it is given a new RFC number and the old RFC is said to be obsoleted.
+ Announcements are sent to the RFC-DIST mailing list whenever a new
+ RFC is issued; anyone may join this list by sending e-mail to
+ majordomo@zephyr.isi.edu with the line "subscribe rfc-dist" in the
+ body of the message.
+
+ RFCs may be obtained through the mail (i.e., postal service), but it
+ is easier and faster to get them on-line. One easy way to obtain RFCs
+ on-line is to use RFC-INFO, an e-mail-based service to help users
+ locate and retrieve RFCs and other Internet documents. To use the
+ service, send e-mail to rfc-info@isi.edu and leave the Subject: field
+ blank; commands that may go in the main body of the message include:
+
+ help (Help file)
+ help: ways_to_get_rfcs (Help file on how to get RFCs)
+
+ RETRIEVE: RFC
+ Doc-ID: RFCxxxx (Retrieve RFC xxxx; use all 4
+ digits)
+
+ LIST: RFC (List all RFCs...)
+ [options] (...[matching the following
+ options])
+ KEYWORDS: xxx (Title contains string "xxx")
+ AUTHOR: xxx (Written by "xxx")
+ ORGANIZATION: xxx (Issued by company "xxx")
+ DATED-AFTER: mmm-dd-yyyy
+ DATED-BEFORE: mmm-dd-yyyy
+ OBSOLETES: RFCxxxx (List RFCs obsoleting RFC xxxx)
+
+ Another RFC e-mail server can be found at the InterNIC. To use this
+ service, send an e-mail message to mailserv@ds.internic.net, leaving
+ the Subject: field blank. In the main body of the message, use one or
+ more of the following commands:
+
+ help (Help file)
+ file /ftp/rfc/rfcNNNN.txt (Text version of RFC NNNN)
+ file /ftp/rfc/rfcNNNN.ps (Postscript version of RFC NNNN)
+ document-by-name rfcNNNN (Text version of RFC NNNN)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 42]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ -------------------------------------------------------------------
+ TABLE 1. Primary RFC Repositories.
+
+ HOST ADDRESS DIRECTORY
+
+ ds.internic.net rfc
+ nis.nsf.net internet/documents/rfc
+ nisc.jvnc.net rfc
+ ftp.isi.edu in-notes
+ wuarchive.wustl.edu info/rfc
+ src.doc.ic.ac.uk rfc
+ ftp.ncren.net rfc
+ ftp.sesqui.net pub/rfc
+ nis.garr.it mirrors/RFC
+ funet.fi rfc
+ munnari.oz.au rfc
+ -------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ To obtain an RFC via anonymous FTP, connect to one of the RFC
+ repositories listed in Table 1 using FTP. After connecting, change to
+ the appropriate RFC directory (as shown in Table 1) using the cd
+ command. To obtain a particular file, use the get command:
+
+ GET RFC-INDEX.TXT local_name (RFC Index)
+ GET RFCxxxx.TXT local_name (Text version of RFC xxxx)
+ GET RFCxxxx.PS local_name (Postscript version of RFC
+ xxxx)
+
+ The RFC index, or a specific reference to an RFC, will indicate
+ whether the RFC is available in ASCII text (.txt) or Postscript (.ps)
+ format. By convention, all RFCs are available in ASCII while some are
+ also available in Postscript where use of graphics and/or different
+ fonts adds more information or clarity; an increasing number are also
+ being converted to HTML. Be aware that the index file is very large,
+ containing the citing for over 2,000 documents. Note that not all
+ RFCs numbered below 698 (July 1975) are available on-line.
+
+ Finally, the InterNIC's Web site at
+ http://ds.internic.net/ds/dspg1intdoc.html contains the RFC index and
+ a complete set of RFCs. More information about Web-based RFC servers
+ can be found at http://www.isi.edu/rfc-editor/rfc-sources.html.
+
+ The sample dialogue below, although highly abbreviated, shows a user
+ obtaining RFC 1594 (Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User"
+ Questions) using e-mail and anonymous FTP.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 43]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ ====================================================================
+**SMCVAX$ mail
+**MAIL> send
+**To: in%"rfc-info@isi.edu"
+ Subject:
+ Enter your message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, CTRL/C to quit
+**retrieve: rfc
+**doc-id: rfc1594
+**^Z
+**MAIL> exit
+
+**SMCVAX$ ftp ds.internic.net
+**Username: anonymous
+**Password:
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> cd rfc
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> get rfc1594.txt rfc-1594.txt
+**NIC.DDN.MIL> exit
+ SMCVAX$
+ ====================================================================
+
+9.2. Internet Standards
+
+ RFCs describe many aspects of the Internet. By the early 1990s,
+ however, so many specifications of various protocols had been written
+ that it was not always clear as to which documents represented
+ standards for the Internet. For that reason, a subset of RFCs have
+ been designated as STDs to identify them as Internet standards.
+
+ Unlike RFC numbers that are never reused, STD numbers always refer to
+ the latest version of the standard. UDP, for example, would be
+ completely identified as "STD-6/RFC-768." Note that STD numbers
+ refer to a standard, which is not necessarily a single document; STD
+ 19, for example, is the NetBIOS Service Protocols standard comprising
+ RFCs 1001 and 1002, and a complete citation for this standard would
+ be "STD-19/RFC-001/RFC-1002."
+
+ The availability of new STDs is announced on the RFC-DIST mailing
+ list. STD-1 [23] always refers to the latest list of "Internet
+ Official Protocol Standards". The Internet standards process is
+ described in RFC 2026 [5] and STD notes are explained in RFC 1311
+ [24].
+
+ STDs can be obtained as RFCs via anonymous FTP from any RFC
+ repository. In addition, some RFC sites (such as ds.internic.net)
+ provide an STD directory so that STD documents can be found in the
+ path /STD/xx.TXT, where xx refers to the STD number.
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 44]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ STD documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in
+ Section 9.1. STDs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using
+ the RETRIEVE: STD and Doc-ID: STDxxxx commands. Also, check out the
+ InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/std/ for the STD index
+ and a complete set of STDs.
+
+9.3. For Your Information Documents
+
+ The For Your Information (FYI) series of RFCs provides Internet users
+ with information about many topics related to the Internet. FYI
+ topics range from historical to explanatory to tutorial, and are
+ aimed at the wide spectrum of people that use the Internet. The FYI
+ series includes answers to frequently asked questions by both
+ beginning and seasoned users of the Internet, an annotated
+ bibliography of Internet books, and an explanation of the domain name
+ system.
+
+ Like the STDs, an FYI number always refers to the latest version of
+ an FYI. FYI 4, for example, refers to the answers to commonly asked
+ questions by new Internet users; its complete citation would be
+ "FYI-4/RFC-1594." The FYI notes are explained in FYI 1 [18].
+
+ FYIs can be obtained as RFCs via anonymous FTP from any RFC
+ repository. In addition, some RFC sites (such as ds.internic.net)
+ provide an FYI directory so that FYI documents can be found in the
+ path /FYI/xx.TXT, where xx refers to the FYI number.
+
+ FYI documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in
+ Section 9.1. FYIs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using
+ the RETRIEVE: FYI and Doc-ID: FYIxxxx commands. Also, check out the
+ InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/fyi/ for the FYI index
+ and a complete set of FYIs.
+
+9.4. Best Current Practices
+
+ Standards track RFCs are formally part of the IETF standards process,
+ subject to peer review, and intended to culminate in an official
+ Internet Standard. Other RFCs are published on a less formal basis
+ and are not part of the IETF process. To provide a mechanism of
+ publishing relevant technical information which it endorsed, the IETF
+ created a new series of RFCs, called the Best Current Practices (BCP)
+ series. BCP topics include variances from the Internet standards
+ process and IP address allocation in private networks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 45]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Like the STDs and FYIs, a BCP number always refers to the latest
+ version of a BCP. BCP 5, for example, describes an IP address
+ allocation plan for private networks; its complete citation would be
+ "BCP-5/RFC-1918." The BCP process is explained in BCP 1 [25].
+
+ BCP documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in
+ Section 9.1. BCPs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using
+ the RETRIEVE: BCP and Doc-ID: BCPxxxx commands. Also, check out the
+ RFC Editor's Web site at http://www.isi.edu/rfc-editor/ for the BCP
+ index and a complete set of BCPs.
+
+9.5. RARE Technical Reports
+
+ RARE, the Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne (Association
+ of European Research Networks), has a charter to promote and
+ participate in the creation of a high-quality European computer
+ communications infrastructure for the support of research endeavors.
+ RARE member networks use Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols
+ and TCP/IP. To promote a closer relationship between RARE and the
+ IETF, RARE Technical Reports (RTRs) have also been published as RFCs
+ since the summer of 1993.
+
+ RTR documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in
+ Section 9.1. RTRs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using
+ the RETRIEVE: RTR and Doc-ID: RTRxxxx commands. Also, check out the
+ InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/rtr/ for the RTR index
+ and a complete set of RTRs. Finally, RTRs may be obtained via
+ anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.rare.nl/rare/publications/rtr/.
+
+10. Perusing the Internet
+
+ This guide is intended to provide the reader with a rudimentary
+ ability to use the utilities that are provided by TCP/IP and the
+ Internet. By now, it is clear that the user's knowledge, ability, and
+ willingness to experiment are about the only limits to what can be
+ accomplished.
+
+ There are several books that will help you get started finding sites
+ on the Internet, including The INTERNET Yellow Pages [9]. But much
+ more timely and up-to-date information can be found on the Internet
+ itself, using such search tools as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com),
+ Excite (http://www.excite.com), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com),
+ WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com), and AltaAvista
+ (http://altavista.digital.com).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 46]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ There are several other sources that cite locations from which to
+ access specific information about a wide range of subjects using such
+ tools as FTP, Telnet, Gopher, and WWW. One of the best periodic
+ lists, and archives, is through the Scout Report, a weekly
+ publication by the InterNIC's Net Scout Services Project at the
+ University of Wisconsin's Computer Science Department. To receive the
+ Scout Report by e-mail each week, join the mailing list by sending
+ email to listserv@lists.internic.net; place the line subscribe
+ scout-report your_full_name in the body of the message to receive the
+ text version or use subscribe scout-report-html your_full_name to
+ receive the report in HTML. The Scout Report is also available on the
+ Web at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report and
+ http://rs.internic.net/scout/report, or via anonymous FTP at
+ ftp://rs.internic.net/scout/.
+
+ Another list is Yanoff's Internet Services List, which may be found
+ at http://www.spectracom.com/islist/ or
+ ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/inet.services.txt. Gary Kessler, one of the
+ co-author's of this document, maintains his own eclectic
+ Miscellaneous Sites List at
+ http://www.together.net/~kessler/gck_site.html.
+
+ If you are looking for Internet-specific information, one good
+ starting point is
+ http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/. The InterNIC
+ is another valuable resource, with their Scout Report and Scout
+ Toolkit (http://rs.internic.net/scout/toolkit).
+
+ There is also a fair amount of rudimentary tutorial information
+ available on the Internet. The InterNIC cosponsors "The 15 Minute
+ Series" (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/15min/), a collection of
+ free, modular, and extensible training materials on specific Internet
+ topics. ROADMAP96 (http://www.ua.edu/~crispen/roadmap.html) is a
+ free, 27-lesson Internet training workshop over e-mail.
+
+ More books and specialized articles came out about the Internet in
+ 1993 and 1994 than in all previous years (squared!), and that trend
+ has seemed to continue into 1995, 1996, and beyond. Three books are
+ worth notable mention because they do not directly relate to finding
+ your way around, or finding things on, the Internet. Hafner and Lyon
+ [8] have written Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the
+ Internet, a history of the development of the Advanced Research
+ Projects Agency (ARPA), packet switching, and the ARPANET, focusing
+ primarily on the 1960s and 1970s. While culminating with the
+ APRANET's 25th Anniversary in 1994, its main thrusts are on the
+ groups building the ARPANET backbone (largely BBN) and the host-to-
+ host application and communication protocols (largely the Network
+ Working Group). Salus' book, Casting The Net: From ARPANET to
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 47]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ INTERNET and beyond... [28], goes into the development of the network
+ from the perspective of the people, protocols, applications, and
+ networks. Including a set of "diversions," his book is a bit more
+ whimsical than Hafner & Lyon's. Finally, Carl Malamud has written a
+ delightful book called Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue
+ [17], chronicling not the history of the Internet as much as a subset
+ of the people currently active in building and defining it. This
+ book will not teach you how to perform an anonymous FTP file transfer
+ nor how to use Gopher, but provides insights about our network (and
+ Carl's gastro-pathology) that no mere statistics can convey.
+
+11. Acronyms and Abbreviations
+
+ ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
+ BCP Best Current Practices
+ BITNET Because It's Time Network
+ DDN Defense Data Network
+ DNS Domain Name System
+ EARN European Academic Research Network
+ FAQ Frequently Asked Questions list
+ FTP File Transfer Protocol
+ FYI For Your Information series of RFCs
+ HTML Hypertext Markup Language
+ HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol
+ ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol
+ IP Internet Protocol
+ ISO International Organization for Standardization
+ NetBIOS Network Basic Input/Output System
+ NIC Network Information Center
+ NICNAME Network Information Center name service
+ NSF National Science Foundation
+ NSFNET National Science Foundation Network
+ RFC Request For Comments
+ RARE Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne
+ RTR RARE Technical Reports
+ STD Internet Standards series of RFCs
+ TCP Transmission Control Protocol
+ TTL Time-To-Live
+ UDP User Datagram Protocol
+ URL Uniform Resource Locator
+ WAIS Wide Area Information Server
+ WWW World Wide Web
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 48]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+12. Security Considerations
+
+ Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
+
+13. Acknowledgments
+
+ Our thanks are given to all sites that we accessed or otherwise used
+ system resources in preparation for this document. We also appreciate
+ the comments and suggestions from our students and members of the
+ Internet community, particularly after the last version of this
+ document was circulated, including Mark Delany and the rest of the
+ gang at the Australian Public Access Network Association, Margaret
+ Hall (BBN), John Martin (RARE), Tom Maufer (3Com), Carol Monaghan
+ (Hill Associates), Michael Patton (BBN), N. Todd Pritsky (Hill
+ Associates), and Brian Williams. Special thanks are due to Joyce
+ Reynolds for her continued encouragement and direction.
+
+14. References
+
+ [1] Anklesaria, F., M. McCahill, P. Lindner, D. Johnson, D. Torrey,
+ and B. Alberti, "The Internet Gopher Protocol," RFC 1436,
+ University of Minnesota, March 1993.
+
+ [2] Berners-Lee, T. and D. Connolly, "Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0,"
+ RFC 1866, MIT/W3C, November 1995.
+
+ [3] _____, R. Fielding, and H. Frystyk, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -
+ HTTP/1.0," RFC 1945, MIT/LCS, UC Irvine, MIT/LCS, May 1996.
+
+ [4] _____, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill, Editors, "Uniform Resource
+ Locators (URL)," RFC 1738, CERN, Xerox Corp., University of
+ Minnesota, December 1994.
+
+ [5] Bradner, S. "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3," RFC
+ 2026, Harvard University, October 1996.
+
+ [6] Comer, D. Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol. I: Principles,
+ Protocols, and Architecture, 3/e. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-
+ Hall, 1995.
+
+ [7] Feit, S. TCP/IP: Architecture, Protocols, and Implementation with
+ IPv6 and IP Security, 2/e. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
+
+ [8] Hafner, K. and M. Lyon. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins
+ of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 49]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ [9] Hahn, H. and R. Stout. The Internet Yellow Pages, 3/e. Berkeley
+ (CA): Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1996.
+
+[10] Harrenstien, K., M. Stahl, and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS,"
+ RFC 954, SRI, October 1985.
+
+[11] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner. "The Organizations Involved in the IETF
+ Standards Process," RFC 2028, Digital, Harvard University, October
+ 1996.
+
+[12] Huizer, E. "IETF-ISOC Relationship," RFC 2031, SEC, October 1996.
+
+[13] Kantor, B. and P. Lapsley. "Network News Transfer Protocol," RFC
+ 977, U.C. San Diego, U.C. Berkeley, February 1986.
+
+[14] Kessler, G.C. "An Overview of TCP/IP Protocols and the Internet."
+ URL: http://www.hill.com/library/tcpip.html. Last accessed: 17
+ February 1997
+
+[15] _____. "IETF-History, Background, and Role in Today's Internet."
+ URL: http://www.hill.com/library/ietf_hx.html. Last accessed: 17
+ February 1997.
+
+[16] _____. "Running Your Own DNS." Network VAR, July 1996. (See also
+ URL: http://www.hill.com/library/dns.html. Last accessed: 17
+ February 1997.)
+
+[17] Malamud, C. Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue.
+ Englewood Cliffs (NJ): PTR Prentice Hall, 1992.
+
+[18] Malkin, G.S. and J.K. Reynolds, "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to
+ the F.Y.I. notes," FYI 1/RFC 1150, Proteon, USC/Information
+ Sciences Institute, March 1990.
+
+[19] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities,"
+ STD 13/RFC 1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.
+
+[20] National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). "A
+ Beginner's Guide to HTML." URL:
+ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. Last
+ accessed: 2 February 1997.
+
+[21] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation,"
+ USC/Information Sciences Institute, RFC 1591, March 1994.
+
+[22] _____, "Internet Control Message Protocol," USC/Information
+ Sciences Institute, RFC 792, September 1981.
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 50]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+[23] _____, Editor, "Internet Official Protocol Standards,"
+ STD 1/RFC 2000, Internet Architecture Board, February 1997.
+
+[24] _____, "Introduction to the STD Notes," RFC 1311, USC/Information
+ Sciences Institute, March 1992.
+
+[25] _____, T. Li, and Y. Rekhter, "Best Current Practices," BCP 1/RFC
+ 1818, USC/Information Sciences Institute, Cisco Systems, August
+ 1995.
+
+[26] _____ and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol (FTP),"
+ STD 9/RFC 959, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1985.
+
+[27] _____ and J. Reynolds, "TELNET Protocol Specification,"
+ STD 8/RFC 854, USC/Information Sciences Institute, May 1983.
+
+[28] Salus, P.H. Casting The Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and beyond...
+ Reading (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1995.
+
+[29] Socolofsky, T.J. and C.J. Kale, "TCP/IP Tutorial," RFC 1180, Spider
+ Systems Ltd., January 1991.
+
+[30] Stevens, W.R. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols. Reading
+ (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1994.
+
+[31] Williamson, S., "Transition and Modernization of the Internet
+ Registration Service," RFC 1400, Network Solutions, Inc., March
+ 1993.
+
+[32] Zimmerman, D., "The Finger User Information Protocol," RFC 1288,
+ Rutgers University, December 1991.
+
+15. Authors' Address
+
+ Gary C. Kessler
+ Hill Associates
+ 17 Roosevelt Highway
+ Colchester, VT 05446
+ Phone: +1 802-655-8659
+ Fax: +1 802-655-7974
+ E-mail: kumquat@hill.com
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 51]
+
+RFC 2151 Internet & TCP/IP Tools & Utilities June 1997
+
+
+ Steven D. Shepard
+ Hill Associates
+ 17 Roosevelt Highway
+ Colchester, VT 05446
+ Phone: +1 802-655-8646
+ Fax: +1 802-655-7974
+ E-mail: s.shepard@hill.com
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Kessler & Shepard Informational [Page 52]
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