A most exciting development in the use of computers in education is the recent surge in the use of Internet. Internet is an international network of tens of thousands of computers with potentially millions of users.

Internet stands for international network. It began in 1969 as a part of the US Department of Defense. Today it connects millions of computers through thousands of smaller networks that link computers worldwide. New networks are connected to the Internet daily.

The list of activities that can be done through Internet is astounding. You can e-mail to anyone who has access to Internet. I have personally sent e-mail to friends all over the U.S., Malaysia, Australia, UK, Singapore and Japan. The potential is incredible. Earlier this year the Prime Minister of Sweden sent his congratulations to the President of the United States by e-mail on Internet. Yes even the President of the United States has his own Internet account (president@whitehouse.gov). Even Santa Claus has an address (santa@northpole.net.)

You can transfer files anywhere in the Internet. This includes not only software to run on your computer but entire novels like Alice through the Looking Glass and MacBeth. Beyond text files, you can also access multimedia files including satellite weather pictures. During the past Winter Olympics, you could view press photographs from some of the competition. You can watch video-clips of new movies and listen to new musical releases and even watch rock concerts via the Internet.

Besides accessing files on other computers, you can also run software located on other computers. Internet users can log-on to other computers and use these computers to run software that maybe can't run on your computer.

One exciting feature of Internet is a menu-driven program called Gopher. Gopher gives the user access to thousands of computers and the databases and files contained on them. Using Gopher, you can read several professional journals and books that are posted electronically on the Internet. You can scan the library listings at libraries throughout the world. There is a phonebook available through Gopher that can be used to locate e-mail addresses of users throughout the Internet system. The uses are astounding.

Another feature of Internet is the access to thousands of discussion groups on just about any topic imaginable. Internet users can also carry on "conversations" with people all over the world in real time and participate in single- and multi-user role-playing games in real time.

Probably the most exciting part of the Internet is graphical user interface into the World Wide Web(WWW) of information. Several of the programs available for accessing the WWW include Mosaic, Cello and Netscape.

a) If your school is a site for Internet, all you need is to ask the computer systems' adminstrator for an account.

b) If you have a friend with an account, you could try using his or her's first.

c) If you want an access to Internet from home, you need to subscribe to a provider of Internet like American-Online, Prodigy or RoadRunner Computer Systems in Santa Fe. Some communities like Taos now offer Internet access to all of its citizens. Soon the BBS, Hermit's Outlook in Las Vegas will be offering Internet access for a fee.

To access Internet from your home or school, you need several additional items. First, you need to obtain some additional hardware and software. Then you need to link your computer to the Internet provider through the telephone system.

The additional hardware needed is a modem. A modem is an acronym for modulator-demodulator. It converts the electronic signals coming from the computer (in digital form) to signals which can be transmitted by the telephone system (in analog form). Also needed is a telephone of course and cables to connect the modem to the telephone.

When you enroll with your Internet provider, they should provide you with some initial software to get started on your exploration of the Internet. The instructions for using the software is usually included on the disk.

a) E-mail stands for electronic mail and provides a way to mail messages between users of Internet.

b) Telnet allows a user to log-in to another computer on Internet

c) ftp, which stands for file transfer protocol, provides a facility for transferring files between computers.

d) Gopher is a menu-driven program that allows the user to access databases and other information sources located on other computers.

e) UseNet, sometimes called NetNews, is a collection of thousands of newsgroups or bulletin boards.

f) WAIS(Wide Area Information Server). WAIS is a protocol that allows users to search and access different types of information through a single interface. g) WWW (World Wide Web) - a hyper-text browser of WAIS and other information providers.

h) Mosaic, Cello or Netscape - a graphical-user interface into the WWW.

i) Lynx - a hypertext-based interface (browser) into the WWW.

1.4 Introduction to Internet Resources

WHAT IS AVAILABLE:

1. Electronic Mail (e-mail): you can create a file that contains a note or letter, which can be sent to the recipient's electronic mailbox.

At Highlands, we can use a program like QVTNET to connect to the VAX computers for e-mail. Programs available on UNIX systems for e-mail include mail, elm and pine.

When composing a message, you will be asked to enter an address (TO:) as well as a subject before you begin typing the message. The addresses are usually of the form

name@machine.organization.domain.

My address is summers_wayne@ColumbusState.edu venus is our computer's "name". We are part of the nmhu organization and our domain is edu for education.

2.ListServers - These are electronic discussion groups which you can subscribe to. Once you've subscribed to the discussion group, you will receive copies of all mail sent to the group. If you have something to add to the discussion, you can participate by mailing to the group also. If you subscribe to a ListServ, it is important to unsubscribe if you will not be reading your e-mail file for awhile.

3. Gopher: menu-based program for information retrieval

To use type gopher (This logs you onto the gopher server at the University of Sam Houston on NMHU VAX). You can also type gopher followed by a system name if you know of one also running gopher, i.e. gopher kids.ccit.duq.edu will log you onto a gopher server containing menus on K-12 education, or gopher spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov. Once you're on gopher, just follow the menus.

4. World-Wide Web(www): similar to gopher, but is organized by hypertext, or links between items.

To use, telnet to a www server: telnet www.njit.edu and login as www. Then follow the directions on the screen.

5. Mosaic, Cello, Netscape: graphical user interfaces into WWW. These are the most exciting intefaces into the network. These programs require a direct link to the Internet. Accessing Internet through the VAX computer at Highlands doesn't support these programs. Once you've executed one of these programs, you can click with the mouse on any colored selection. You can also change the "home page" to another site by changing the site in the pull-down menu.

6. Lynx: hypertext interface into WWW. To use type lynx (This logs you onto the lynx server at the University of Kansas). You can also type lynx followed by the type and server name, i.e. to access Microsoft's server, you could type

lynx http://www.microsoft.com

7. Telnet: to log in to another computer

To use, type telnet machinename.organization.

You will then be asked for your user-id and password. (Note you must have or be given an account on the other machine to use it.)

Usually when you log off the other computer, you are returned to your own system. If you are still in telnet, type exit.

e.g. telnet stis.nsf.gov and use public as the user-id

telnet spacemet.phast.umass.edu and use guest as the user-id.

8. File Transfer Protocol (ftp): To upload or download files from another computer.

To use, type ftp machinename.organization

You will then be asked for your user-id and password. If you do not have an account on the machine, often you may enter anonymous as your user-id and your address as the password.

Once you are on the other system, you can move about using cd and find what's in a directory with dir. Yoiu can retrieve files using get filename. BEWARE; downloading big files will take a very long time If you are downloading a program file, you must type binary before get filename. Before downloading text files again, you'll need to type ascii. If you download programs, make sure to check them for viruses before using them.

9. finger: gives information about other Internet users.

To use, type finger followed by the user name and address (@machinename.organization)

10. Wide Area Information Server (WAIS): is a more complicated information retrieval system.

To use, telnet to a WAIS server: telnet quake.think.com login as wais and use your Internet address as the password. To search for a particular information source, type /, and WAIS will ask you for a keyword to use on a source search. Type s to select another reference or q to exit WAIS.

11. Netnews, news, Usenet: thousands of bulletin boards containing information on specific topics.

Program used is trn (threaded read news) which groups Netnews articles into threads based on their subject area. To use, type trn. You will then need to find the news group that you're interested in reading and/or subscribing to. Follow the menus. ? will display a page of useful commands.

12. whois: is a "white pages" for all users at an organization. To get a list of whois servers, type: ftp sipb.mit.edu ; login as anonymous and get pub/whois/whois-servers.list

To use whois on a particular server, type:

whois -h servername searchname

13. archie program which searchs ftp sites for programs specified.

To use, you first need to telnet to a site which is running archie and login as archie.

i.e. telnet archie.ans.net

To search for a program type prog followed by the name of the program. Once you're finished, type quit. You can then retrieve the program by ftping to the site identified by archie.

14. Packet Internet Groper (Ping) - checks to see if another computer is "alive".

15. Internet Chats: enables two people at separate PCs to "talk" to each other in real time.

Program used is phone on the VAX. UNIX uses programs called talk and ntalk.

To use talk, type phone followed by the name of the user you want to talk to. If the other person is logged onto the computer, you will see the message:

(Waiting for your party to respond)

You should then see the message:

(Connection established)

The screen will split into two windows. The top half displays what you type and the bottom half displays what the other person types. When finished, type ^c (CTRL C).

16. Internet Relay chats (IRC): These are real-time discussion groups.

:-) When sending e-mail to someone you do not know, be courteous.

:-) Before sending a request to initiate a real-time conversation, ask yourself why you are doing this and how the other person is likely to respond.

:-( When people online get angry at you, they may perform an action known as flaming, DON'T PARTICIPATE.

<:-I Be careful about spelling, grammar and phrasing

;-| Use subject lines in e-mail and Netnews

:-O Use quoted material sparingly.

{ : - ] Learn to communicate your emotions using "smileys". (See the beginning of every line and turn the paper sideways!!) (:-)

| - ) Keep your cool.

:-\ Be selective; don't crowd the network

%-) Avoid using the system during busy periods.

:-o Make sure to log off all systems.

=) Do not tie up connections for long periods of time.

:< Do not copy large amounts of data simply because it's available.

:-1 Try to break large amounts of information into several smaller groups

(:-) REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE A GUEST.