LinuxDig.com Request For Comments

RFC Number : 1689 Title : A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups. Network Working Group J. Foster, Editor Request for Comments: 1689 University of Newcastle upon Tyne RARE Technical Report: 13 August 1994 FYI: 25 Category: Informational A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups Produced as a collaborative effort by the Joint IETF/RARE/CNI Networked Information Retrieval - Working Group (NIR-WG) 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 The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of Networked Information Retrieval by bringing together in one place information about the various networked information retrieval tools, their developers, interested organisations, and other activities that relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools. NIR Tools covered include Archie, WAIS, gopher and World Wide Web. Table of Contents 1. Introduction .............................................. 2 2. How the information was collected ......................... 3 3. What is covered? .......................................... 3 4. Updating information ...................................... 5 5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool ......................... 5 6. NIR Tools ................................................. 9 7. NIR Groups ................................................ 123 8. Security Considerations ................................... 180 9. Acknowledgements .......................................... 180 10. Author's Address .......................................... 180 11. Appendix A: NIR Tool Template ............................. 181 12. Appendix B: NIR Group Template ............................ 188 13. Appendix C: Email Lists and Newsgroups .................... 192 14. Appendix D: Coming Attractions ............................ 207 15. Appendix E: Extinct Critters (Tools) ...................... 222 16. Appendix F: Extinct Critters (Groups) ..................... 222 Foster [Page 1]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 1. Introduction As the network has grown, along with it there has been an increase in the number of software tools and applications to navigate the network and make use of the many, varied resources which are part of the network. Within the past two and a half years we have seen a widespread adoption of tools such as the archie servers, the Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet gopher, and the Worldwide Web (WWW). In addition to the acceptance of these tools there are also diverse efforts to enhance and customise these tools to meet the needs of particular network communities. There are many organisations and associations that are focusing on the proliferating resources and tools for networked information retrieval (NIR). The Networked Information Retrieval Group is a cooperative effort of three major players in the field of NIR: The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Association of European Research Networks (RARE) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), specifically tasked to collect and disseminate information about the tools and to discuss and encourage cooperative development of current and future tools. The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of NIR by bringing together in one place information about the various networked information retrieval tools, their developers, interested organisations, and other activities that relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools. The intention is to make this a 'living document'. It will be held on-line so that each section may be updated separately as appropriate. In addition, it is intended that the full document will be updated once a year so that it provides a 'snapshot' report on activities in this area. Whilst the NIR tools in this report are being used on a wide variety of information sources including files and databases there remains much that is currently not accessible by these means. On the other hand, the majority of the NIR Tools described here are freely available to the networked Research and Education community. Tools for accessing specialised datasets are often only available at a cost. It should be noted that in many ways networked information retrieval is in its infancy compared with traditional information retrieval systems. Thesaurus construction, boolean searching and classification control are issues which are under discussion for the popular NIR Tools but as yet are not in widespread use. However it should be said that, with the vast amount of effort that is currently going into the NIR field, rapid progress is being made. Much work is currently being done on expanding some of the NIR tools to include Foster [Page 2]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 handling of multimedia information services. Progress has also been made in the discussions on classifying and cataloguing electronic information resources. 2. How the information was collected The information contained in this report was collected over the network from the contacts for each NIR Tool or Group using two templates: - the NIR Tool Template, included in Appendix A; - the NIR Group Template, included in Appendix B. The contents of these templates were discussed by the NIR WG in Boston (July, 1992) and subsequently on the email list. (See the Section on the NIR-WG for details of how to join this mailing list.) The initial draft report was discussed at the NIR Working Group in Washington (November, 1992) and updated and added to at subsequent WG meetings. Before the final submission as an RFC the individual templates were reviewed by independent reviewers from around the world. Their efforts are acknowledged in Section 9. The NIR Tool template was used to collect the information necessary to identify and track the development of networked information retrieval tools. This template asked for information such as how and where to get the software for each NIR Tool, documentation, demonstration sites, etc. The main part of the template has been completed by the main individual responsible for the tool. Sections of the template (e.g., on clients) may have required completion by others. The NIR Group template requested information on the aim and purpose of the group, the current tasks being undertaken, mailing lists, document archives, etc. 3. What is covered? In the current report you will find information on the following NIR tools: Alex archie gopher Hytelnet Netfind Prospero Veronica WAIS (including freeWAIS) Foster [Page 3]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 WHOIS World Wide Web (including MOSAIC) X.500 White Pages Appendix D covers 'Forthcoming Attractions': Hyper-G Soft Pages WHOIS++ and the following NIR Groups: CNI Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Architectures and Standards Directories and Resource Information Services TopNode for Networked Information Resources, Services and Tools CNIDR Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval IETF Integrated Directory Services (IDS) Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR) Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) joint IETF/RARE WG Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI) OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS) Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS) IRTF Internet Research Task Force Research Group on Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD) NISO Z39.50 Implementors Group RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group (ISUS) USMARC/OCLC USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC) Appendix C contains a list of the relevant email lists and Appendix D contains information on 'Coming Attractions' which are NIR tools not yet in widespread use. Foster [Page 4]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 4. Updating Information Updates on and additions to the information contained in this report are welcome. CNIDR have agreed to host the report and to accept updates to individual templates from the template maintainers. Send updates using the appropriate template (from Appendix A or Appendix B of this report) to: nir-updates@cnidr.org The current templates and this report may be retrieved from the UK Mailbase Server: Via anonymous ftp (use your email address as the password): URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/tool.template URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/group.template URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/nir.status.report or via gopher or World Wide Web to mailbase.ac.uk or via email: Mail to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk Text of the message: send nir tool.template send nir group.template send nir nir.status.report 5. Overview of the types of NIR Tools The following is an overview of major networked information retrieval (NIR) tools available on the Internet. There are many excellent books which discuss the Internet and NIR Tools in detail. Such books include 'The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog' by Ed Krol and published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc and 'The Internet Guide for New Users' by Daniel Dearn and published by Meckler. The number of these NIR tools is large and growing quickly. Certain techniques reappear regularly and seemingly different tools may perform similar tasks, allowing a simple classification of projects encompassing most of the existing tools and services. Foster [Page 5]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 The classification presented here is only one possible ordering. The goal is to define in broad outlines what can be done with particular tools, realizing that users will always find novel unanticipated ways of applying them. Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World Wide Web) Basic Internet services such as electronic mail and anonymous FTP can be used to share information across the Internet, but neither allows simple browsing and neither is particularly easy for the newcomer to learn to use. Gopher and the World Wide Web (W3) are two recent developments that attempt to make it easier to distribute information over the Internet. Both allow the user to browse information across the network without the necessity of logging in or knowing in advance where to look for information. The Gopher project was first developed at the University of Minnesota to provide a simple campus-wide on-line information system. Gopher represents information as a simple hierarchy of menus and files. It has limited capability to recognize different types of files, allowing, for example, the display of selected types of image files. Gateways to other services are provided (usually in a manner that is transparent to the user). The underlying Gopher protocol is simple, and has facilitated the creation of freely available clients for use on a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems. The more recent Gopher+ protocol adds the ability to provide documents in alternate forms (PDF, PostScript, RTF, Word). These features and the ease of installing and administering gopher servers has led to an explosive growth of gopher sites since its initial deployment. As of November 1993, there were over 2200 known servers. World Wide Web relies on hypertext; formatted documents are displayed, and hypertext links within the document can be selected to travel from the current document to another. W3 allows a user to annotate documents (using hypertext links), provides gateways to other services, and has multimedia support (for example, on appropriate hardware platforms it can intermix text and images in a displayed document). There is a range of free W3 clients, supporting many environments. World Wide Web was originally developed at CERN for the High Energy Physics Community. Gopher and WWW share a maintenance problem in that there is no automated way to update links to other documents when those documents are moved or removed. Foster [Page 6]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Directory Services (WHOIS, X.500) Directory Service tools are intended to provide a lookup service for locating information about users (often referred to as White Pages), or services and service providers (Yellow Pages). For example, a White Pages service might be used to locate an electronic mail address, given a name and organization, while a Yellow Pages service could be used to locate an online library catalog or file archive site. One of the first directory services deployed on the Internet was WHOIS, a simple White Pages service created to track key network contacts for the early DARPA-sponsored incarnation of the Internet. A number of sites currently operate WHOIS servers, based on a range of extensions and enhancements to the original model. WHOIS enjoys the advantages of simplicity and the presence of WHOIS client software on a preponderance of Internet-connected hosts. Work is underway on a more powerful protocol, known as WHOIS++, which is backwards-compatible with WHOIS. The X.500 Directory Service is a much more ambitious Directory project that has been under development for a number of years under the aegis of ISO/OSI. Implementations, concerned primarily with White pages services, are available in the public domain and from commercial sources. There are LDAP based X.500 clients available for most major platforms, as well as a LDAP based gopher gateway to X.500. Despite years of effort, there is still no single White Pages Directory Service for the entire Internet; Yellow Pages services remain even less well developed and deployed. The cost of setting up the service is one obstacle; maintaining the required databases is even more daunting. Indexing Services (archie, Veronica, online library catalogs) There are several Internet-based projects that build indexed catalogs of information to facilitate searching and retrieval. The first such services provided network access to library card catalogs, with more recent projects indexing network-based information. archie: The archie service began as a simple project to catalog the contents of hundreds of ftp-accessible online file archives. The archie service gathers location information, name, and other details describing such files and creates an index database. Foster [Page 7]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Users can contact an archie server and search this database for files they require. The archie service is accessible through a range of access methods, including telnet, stand-alone client programs running on a user's own machine, gopher, WWW, or via electronic mail. The initial implementation of archie tracks over 2,100,000 filenames on over 1,200 sites around the world (as of November 1993). There are about 30 (geographically distributed) archie servers. Both commercial and freely available versions of the archie client software are available. Work continues on extending the archie service to provide additional types of information. The latest version is being used to provide a prototype Yellow Pages service and directories of online library catalogs and electronic mailing lists. Veronica: Veronica arose as an attempt to do for the world of Gopher what archie did for the world of ftp. A central server periodically scans the complete menu hierarchies of Gopher servers appearing on an ever-expanding list (over 2000 sites as of November 1993). The resulting index is provided by a veronica server and can be accessed by any gopher client. Online library catalogs: A large number of libraries make their computerized library catalogs available over the Internet. Most are available through telnet sessions in which the user connects to a specific address and logs in using a specific login name. Some are also available through other tools, such as Gopher. Text-based Indexing Services (WAIS) WAIS: Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) is a system for indexing and serving information in a network-based environment. It is distinct from indexing tools such as archie and veronica in that it is used to index text-based target documents on a server, as well as descriptions of the contents of a server. A WAIS server allows the administrator to set up an index of the documents (or resources) to be published. The user employs a WAIS client to attach to a particular WAIS server, and specifies a search pattern which is matched against the server's index. In Foster [Page 8]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 early WAIS clients, searches are specified as simple natural- language queries; common ('stop') words are removed, and Boolean 'ORs' are implicitly added between the remaining list of words. Matching documents are rank-ordered according to a simple statistical weighting scheme which attempts to indicate likely relevance. The user may choose to view selected documents, or further refine the search. The results of one search may be used to successively refine future searches ('relevance feedback'). Gopher clients can also access WAIS servers via a transparent gateway. Both freely available and commercial versions of WAIS servers and clients are available. Current work is attempting to add Boolean expressions and proximity and field specifications to queries. There are currently (as of November 1993) some 500 registered WAIS databases with an estimated 2000 additional databases that are not yet registered. There are approximately another 100 commercial WAIS databases. 6. NIR Tools This section contains detailed information about the various NIR Tools. It is ordered alphabetically. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALEX Date template updated or checked: 19th March, 1994 By: Name: Vincent Cate Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: Alex Brief Description of Tool: OVERVIEW: The Alex filesystem provides users and applications transparent read access to files in anonymous FTP sites on the Internet. Today there are thousands of anonymous FTP sites with a total of a few millions of files and roughly a terabyte of data. The standard approach to accessing these files involves logging in to the remote machine. This means that an application can not access remote files like local files. This also means that users do not Foster [Page 9]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 have any of their aliases or local tools available. Users who want to use an application on a remote file first have to manually make a local copy of the file. There is no mechanism for automatically updating this local copy when the remote file changes. The users must keep track of where they get their files from and check to see if there are updates, and then fetch these. In this approach many different users at the same site may have made copies of the same remote file each using up disk space for the same data. Alex addresses the problems with the existing approach while remaining within the existing FTP protocol so that the large collection of currently available files can be used. To get reasonable performance long term file caching is used. Thus consistency is an issue. Traditional solutions to the cache consistency problem do not work in the Internet FTP domain: callbacks are not an option as the FTP protocol has no provisions for this and polling over the Internet is slow. Therefore, Alex relaxes file cache consistency semantics, on a per file basis, and uses special caching algorithms that take into account the properties of the files and of the network to allow a simple stateless filesystem to scale to the size of the Internet. USER'S VIEW: To a user or application, Alex is just a normal filesystem. Any command that works on local files will work on Alex files. Since Alex is a real filesystem, nothing needs to be recompiled and no libraries are changed. Thus, users can apply all of their existing skills and tools for using files. The user sees a filesystem with a hierarchical name space. At the top level (/alex) there are top-level Internet domains like 'edu', 'com', 'uk', and 'jp'. Each component of the hostname becomes a directory name. Then the remote path is added at the end. If the user does a 'ls /alex/edu/berkeley' he sees some machine names such as 'ucbvax' and 'sprite' and some directories on berkeley.edu. From the 'ls' it is not clear what is where. The user may or may not be aware of host boundaries. INFORMATION PROVIDER'S VIEW: Alex is implemented as a user level NFS server. NFS was chosen because it makes it easy to add Alex to a wide range of machines. Most machines can simply use the mount command. Foster [Page 10]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 The model of usage is that there is one Alex server running at each institution (though this is not required in any way). Users mount the local server which caches files for users at that site. Any information put into any anonymous FTP site becomes available via Alex. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: Vincent Cate Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu Postal Address: School of Computer Science 5000 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh PA, 15213 Telephone: +1-412-268-3077 Fax: +1-412-681-1998 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: At this time Alex is a one person project (Vince). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: Maybe the FTP working group. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organization / Funding source: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Information Science and Technology Office, under the title 'Research on Parallel Computing,' ARPA Order No. 7330. Work furnished in connection with this research is provided under prime contract MDA972-90-C-0035 issued by DARPA/CMO to Carnegie Mellon University. Vincent Cate is supported by an 'Intel foundation graduate fellowship'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Foster [Page 11]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Mailing Lists: Address: alex-servers@cs.cmu.edu Administration: alex-servers-request@cs.cmu.edu Description: alex-servers is for people setting up an Alex fileserver. Archive: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.209.13) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: None. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: Any machine that can NFS mount a fileserver. What it runs over: Unix machine and FTP Other NIR tools this interworks with: Uses FTP sites. WAIS can be used to index files in Alex (this was done for ftpable-readmes and cs-techreports WAIS servers) New versions of archie can output Alex paths. Future plans: Graduate from CMU. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 19 March 1994 By: Name: Vincent Cate Platform: UNIX Primary Contact: Name: Vincent Cate Foster [Page 12]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu Telephone: +1-412-268-3077 Server software available from: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu Location of more information: No other place to go to. Latest version number: New versions all the time. Brief Scope and Characteristics: This software is known to still contain bugs. Approximate number of such servers in use: 200. General comments: You can use lpr, make, grep, more, etc. on files around the world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: You just do an NFS mount of the server. No client software is needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites: Site name: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu Access details - do the following as root: mkdir /alex mount -o timeo=30,retrans=300,soft,intr alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu:/ /alex Example use: ln -s /alex/edu/cs/cmu/sp/alex/links alexlinks cd alexlinks ls cd cs-tr cd ls cd purdue ls lpr TR758.PS Foster [Page 13]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 If you like Alex and want to use it regularly please find, or set up, an Alex fileserver at/near your site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/www/alex.html ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/intro.ps ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/NIR.Tool ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/alex.post ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: @InProceedings{cate:alex, author = 'Vincent Cate', title = 'Alex - a Global Filesystem', booktitle = 'Proceedings of the Usenix File Systems Workshop', year = 1992, pages = '1--11', month = may, place = 'Ann Arbor, MI', keyword = 'distributed file system, wide-area file system' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: FTP to alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu and 'cd to doc'. Get the 'README' or anything else there. A current version of this document may be there and called 'NIR.Tool'. In Alex this file is named '/alex/edu/cmu/cs/sp/alex/doc/NIR.Tool'. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Foster [Page 14]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 ARCHIE Date template updated or checked: 1 March, 1994 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: archie Brief Description of Tool: The archie system is a tool for gathering, indexing and serving information from around the Internet. The current version serves a collection of filenames found at anonymous FTP sites, as well as a smaller collection of text descriptions for software, data and other information found at anonymous FTP archives. Additional databases are under development. User's View: Users run a client program to connect to an archie server and issue search commands to find information in an archie database. In the case of an anonymous FTP filename, this information can then be used to fetch the file directly from the archive site using the `ftp' command. To the user, archie could be seen as a `secondary source' of information which, because of the high cost of locating and serving, would not otherwise be available. The user searches the archie databases through either a telnet session to a machine running an archie server, or by using a stand-alone client program (which uses the Prospero protocol for sending and receiving requests). There is also an email interface which allows users to send and receive search requests via electronic mail. Freely available archie clients exist for most operating systems and can be fetched using anonymous FTP from most of the current archie servers. There are also gateways to the archie system from many other NIR tools, including Gopher, WAIS and WWW. An X.500 interface to archie is currently under development. Information Provider's View: There are two types of information providers who would be interested in archie. Primary information providers are interested in having a summary of the information provided by their service tracked by an archie server. Secondary service Foster [Page 15]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 providers, or those sites wishing to provide a 'value-added' service for the Internet can elect to run an archie server at their site to provide a useful service to users, to raise the profile of their institution on the Internet, or to provide market differentiation (for commercial service providers). The archie system is of particular utility serving information where there are many sites to be searched and/or where the cost of searching each site is high. For example, there are currently over 1,200 anonymous FTP sites on the Internet, and the number continues to grow. Searching for a specific filename at a single site may involve scanning hundreds, or even thousands of filenames. Thus, most operators of anonymous FTP archives welcome the fact that archie indexes and serves the names of all files available from each site tracked. Information Types Supported: The archie system allows the gathering and serving of arbitrary information types, although the current system serves only freeform text and a dedicated text format for filename listings. Internally, the archie system now supports a WAIS search engine and frontends for Gopher, WWW and WHOIS++ for accessing archie information through Gopher clients is now being tested. Additional collections of information to be served by the archie software will be announced. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc. Email address: info@bunyip.com Postal Address: Bunyip Information Systems Inc., 310 St-Catherine St. West, suite 202, Montreal, QC CANADA H2X 2A1 Telephone: +1-514-875-8611 Fax: +1-514-875-8134 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: for archie server system and telnet client Foster [Page 16]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc. Email address: info@bunyip.com Telephone: +1-514-875-8611 Level of support offered: o commercial support for server (primarily for systems maintainers) o voluntary helpdesk support for freeware clients o volunteer helpdesk support for Internet information gathering tools in general Hours available: - server system: email: 24 hour support phone support: 9-5 EST - helpdesk consultation: as time permits ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: IETF, IIIR, WNILS, URI. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: Bunyip Information Systems Inc. Funded by licensing of archie software and development contracts from sponsors. Additional information services based upon this software are now being tested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: Address: archie-people@bunyip.com Administration: archie-people-request@bunyip.com Description: Foster [Page 17]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 This mailing list is for people interested in the archie project and its future developments. Announcements of upgrades, new services, etc. are made to this list. Archive: none ------------------- Address: archie-maint@bunyip.com Administration: archie-maint-request@bunyip.com Description: This mailing list is for people who operate and maintain archie servers. Announcements of bug fixes, new releases and discussion of new features are carried out on this list. Archive: 'archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/archie-maint' ------------------- Address: iafa@bunyip.com Administration: iafa-request@bunyip.com Description: This mailing list is for people who are involved in the Internet Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF. This group was involved in standardizing the encoding of information at anonymous FTP archives and thus is of interest to operators and users of the archie system. It came to completion in November, 1992 and produced two documents which have been presented to the IETF as informational RFCs. Archive: 'archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: Name: comp.archives.admin Foster [Page 18]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Description: This newsgroup is for operators and maintainers of Internet archives. Announcements and discussions of issues related to archie are presented here, as well as discussions of more general issues relating to archiving and Internet services. Archive: not known ------------------- Name: alt.internet.services Description: This newsgroup is for people interested in Internet-related services, with a focus at the user level. Announcements and discussions of issues related to archie are presented here, as well as discussions of more general issues relating to Internet services. Archive: not known ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: The current archie system clients use the Prospero protocol for communication with the search engine on the archie server. Freely available clients are available which include source to perform this communication for those wishing to implement additional clients. The archie server is capable of building arbitrary databases, using arbitrary search and access engines and the current release ships with the public domain implementation of WAIS. We expect future archie servers to serve information using this protocol. The current server system assumes the TCP/IP protocol suite is available, and in particular the ftp protocol for data gathering. The archie system can be accessed through systems operating the Gopher, WAIS and WWW (HDDL) protocols. A gateway from the X.500 system is under development. Foster [Page 19]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 What it runs over: The Prospero protocol implementation runs over its own implementation of a reliable datagram protocol based upon UDP. Data gathering runs over the TCP/IP protocol suite. Other NIR tools this interworks with: Prospero, Gopher, WAIS, WWW. Future plans: The archie system became a commercial product in October, 1992, marketed by Bunyip Information Systems Inc. The company plans to market additional data gathering modules to allow the server code to build additional types of databases. Work is also underway to integrate extensions to WHOIS to allow the building and maintaining of White Pages (names) directories. The company is also working on other Internet information tools that will work with the archie system. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: Sun SPARC running SunOS 4.1 or later. IBM RS6000 running AIX version 3.2 or later. for additional UNIX platforms, contact Bunyip Information Systems details. Primary Contact: Name: Alan Emtage Email address: bajan@bunyip.com Telephone: +1-514-398-8611 Server software available from: Bunyip Information Systems Inc. email: info@bunyip.com Location of more information: Additional information on the archie product line is available from the anonymous ftp archives on the various archie server sites. Try 'archie.ans.net', 'archie.sura.net', 'archie.au', etc. Foster [Page 20]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Latest version number: archie 3.1 Brief Scope and Characteristics: This is the commercial inmplementation of the archie system, replacing a version done as a Masters project at McGill University during the period 1990-1992. It comes with an archie telnet client that offers a number of minor improvements over earlier versions. Additional releases, with a number of additional improvements, are planned in the coming months. Approximate number of such servers in use: Currently about 27 (not all are publicly available) General comments: Most users access archie through a freeware or public domain client program. These are available from most archie servers via anonymous FTP. Check out the archie directory on any of the publicly available archie servers or the banner message when logging into any of the archie telnet clients for more details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: command line shell, written in C. Works with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS2 shells. Primary Contact: Name: Brendan Kehoe Email address: brendan@cygnus.com Telephone: not known Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major Internet archives. Look for filename 'c-archie-1.3.2.tar.Z'. Location of more information: Packaged with software. Latest version number: 1.3.2 Foster [Page 21]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in C, it has been ported to MSDOS and OS2. General comments: This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself. Future plans: Not known ------------------- Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: command line shell, written in Perl. Works with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS2 shells. Primary Contact: Name: Khun Yee Fung Email address: clipper@csd.uwo.ca Telephone: not known Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major Internet archives. Look for filename 'perl-archie-3.8.tar.Z'. Location of more information: Packaged with software. Latest version number: 3.8 Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in Perl. General comments: This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself. Future plans: Not known Foster [Page 22]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 ------------------- Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: archie client program for VMS systems. Primary Contact: Name: Brendan Kehoe Email address: brendan@cygnus.com Telephone: not known Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major Internet archives. Look for filename 'archie-vms.com'. Location of more information: Packaged with software. Latest version number: not known. Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie server system for users of VMS. General comments: This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself. Future plans: Not known ------------------- Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: Xwindows client (X11R4) Primary Contact: Name: George Ferguson Email address: ferguson@cs.rochester.edu Telephone: not known Client software available from: cs.rochester.edu, most archie server hosts and major Internet archives. Foster [Page 23]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Look for file 'xarchie-1.3.tar.Z'. Location of more information: Packaged with software. Latest version number: xarchie-1.3 Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program provides an Xwindows client that allows users to search the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the capability of fetching files (using ftp). General comments: none. Future plans: Not known ------------------- Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993 By: Name: Peter Deutsch Email address: peterd@bunyip.com Platform: NeXTStep client. Primary Contact: Name: Scott Stark Email address: me@superc.che.udel.edu Telephone: not known Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major Internet archives. Look for file 'NeXTArchie.tar.Z'. Location of more information: Packaged with software. Latest version number: Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program provides a NeXTStep client that allows users to search the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the capability of fetching files (using ftp). General comments: none. Future plans: Not known ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Foster [Page 24]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Demonstration sites: Site name: any one of: archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers University) archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (University of Nebraska in Lincoln) archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server) archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (ANS archie server) archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian server) archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland) archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (UK/England server) archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15 (Israel server) archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese server) Client software should be supported at all of these sites. Additional sites are available. Use the 'sites' command in the archie telnet interface at any of the above sites for a more complete lists. Access details: - telnet to any of the above sites - login as user `archie' (no password is required) - type `help' at the prompt to get started. Note: Some people forget and use ftp in place of telnet. This will not work. The hint that this is being done is that they claim that a password is needed, not that the site can't be found. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Document Title: What is archie Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net Site: archie.ans.net Full file name: 'pub/archie/doc/whatis.archie' Description: Brief overview of the archie system. Document Title: archie man pages Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net Site: archie.ans.net Full file name: 'pub/archie/doc/archie.man.*' Description: Manual pages for the archie system telnet interface in various formats (raw ASCII, nroff, compressed, etc.). This document also explains the various search options and other features, so is of use to users of the other archie client programs. Foster [Page 25]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Document Title: What's New in 3.0 Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net Site: archie.ans.net Full file name: 'pub/archie/doc/whats.new' Description: Description of the changes to archie for the first commercial release ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: none ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: none =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Foster [Page 26]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 GOPHER Date template updated or checked: 14 March 1994 By: Name: Mark P. McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: Internet Gopher Brief Description of Tool: The Internet Gopher protocol is a client/distributed-server document search and retrieval protocol originally developed at the University of Minnesota. Gopher was originally created as a fast, simple, distributed, campus-wide information search and retrieval system; ease of use and implementation has made Gopher increasingly popular on the Internet. Since its original release, many folks on the Internet have contributed to its growth, submitting patches, servers, clients, and linking their local servers into the worldwide network of Gopher servers. Gateways exist to seamlessly access a variety of non-Gopher services such as ftp, WAIS, USENET news, Archie, Z39.50 (1992 rev), X.500 directories, Sybase and Oracle SQL servers, etc. In addition, an 'archie for gopherspace' called Veronica (very easy rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized archives) has been developed at the University of Nevada. Veronica makes it easy to search for items in gopherspace by title. The gopher protocol is often described as 'fiercely simple'; it is connectionless (stateless), and uses TCP reliable streams. A client connects to a server using TCP, and sends a one-line text 'selector string'. The server responds by returning the item (a file, a directory listing, or a link to some other service) corresponding to the selector string and immediately closing the connection. Items in directory listings are returned as a series of lines terminated by carriage-return line-feed. Each item (line) is defined by a one- character tag to specify the item type, a display string or item-name that the client should display to the user, and a number of tab delimited fields to specify the selector string, host domain name and port number. Because of its simple and connectionless nature, gopher servers make very minimal demands on their host machines and gopher clients are extremely easy to implement. The users view the Gopher world as a series of networked hierarchical directories much like a familiar filesystem. However, the links define a graph rather than a simple rooted tree. Links in the Gopher graph may define services other than simple files or directories; these include cso (qi) servers, telnet sessions, links to other Foster [Page 27]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 gopher servers, and links to gateway servers. The information provider's simplest view is that files and directories below a certain root directory on their machine are all visible and available for retrieval by gopher clients. More features like long names, item types, links, and gateway services are available to the more sophisticated information provider. Servers and clients run on most popular hardware, including Macs, UNIX boxes, PC-DOS boxes. The Internet Gopher name is copyright (c) 1991-1992 by the University of Minnesota. The Internet Gopher protocol is described in an informational RFC (1436) available at better RFC archives everywhere. Extensions to the base gopher protocol allow for associating meta-information with gopher items, alternate views of documents (i.e., text, postscript, rtf, etc.) and electronic forms. Collectively, these extensions are referred to as Gopher+. Gopher+ is upward compatible with the orginal gopher protocol. The gopher software may be retrieved from numerous Gopher or FTP archive sites, including the University of Minnesota Gopher server, the Info-Mac Archive Gopher server, and by anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu and sumex-aim.stanford.edu. As of December 1993, about 1/3 of the approximately 4800 Gopher servers on the internet support Gopher+. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu Postal Address: Microcomputer & Workstation Networks Center 152 Shepherd Labs 100 Union Street SE. University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Fax: +1-612-625-6817 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: Name: Microcomputer HelpLine; ask for The Internet Gopher Development Team Foster [Page 28]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu Telephone: USA: 612 MA MICRO (+1-612-626-4276) Helpline is for general support at the U of M. Level of support offered: all users Hours available: Phone Helpline 9-4 weekdays. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: Address: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu Administration: gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu Description: News and views of all things gopher. Tends to be a high volume mailing list and technically oriented. Archive: Via Gopher: University of Minnesota Gopher Information About Gopher Address: gopher-announce@boombox.micro.umn.edu Administration: gopher-announce-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu Description: A low-volume mailing list of announcements of new software and servers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: Name: comp.infosystems.gopher Description: Discussion of all things gopher. Foster [Page 29]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Archive: Available via gopher client; connect to the gopher server at gopher.tc.umn.edu port 70, look in the 'Information About Gopher' section. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: Internet Gopher What it runs over: Anything you can run TCP/IP over. Other NIR tools this interworks with: Z39.50 WAIS variant via WAIS gateway FTP via FTP gateway archie/Prospero via an archie gateway veronica (an archie for gopherspace) NNTP via NNTP gateway Finger (subset of gopher) X.500 via X.500 gateway Z39.50 1992 revision variant via Z39.50 gateway Oracle and Sybase SQL servers via SQL gateway CSO (Ph/Qi) online phone books Future plans: New user interace metaphor on PowerPC and Pentium-based clients. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: UNIX. Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu Foster [Page 30]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (things change fast; please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Server, index server for WAIS based indices and for NeXT native indexing, tools, gateway code. Supports Gopher+. Approximate number of such servers in use: Over 3000. General comments: The defacto standard workhorse Gopher server. Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of this server. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Macintosh. Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Macintosh Gopher Server and tools, supports Gopher+. Foster [Page 31]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Approximate number of such servers in use: Current estimates between 300 and 400. General comments: Runs on any Macintosh with 1MB memory or more. Requires MacTCP. Can be configured to use Apple Computer's AppleSearch full-text search software as a Gopher-accessible search engine. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: PC-DOS. Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Additional contacts: Name: Dennis Sherman Email address: Dennis_Sherman@unc.edu Name: Foteos Macrides Email address: macrides@sci.wfeb.edu Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 0.91b Brief Scope and Characteristics: Basic Gopher server for PC-DOS boxes. Approximate number of such servers in use: Current estimates between 25 and 75. Foster [Page 32]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 General comments: Written by Chris McNeil , based on Phil Karns net package. The U of M Gopher team forwards difficult problems to Chris. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VMS Primary Contact: Name: J. Lance Wilkinson Email address: jlw@psulias.psu.edu Telephone: +1-814-865-1818 Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/VMS/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 1.2 VMS-0 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Basic VMS Server, shares some code with UNIX server. Approximate number of such servers in use: 35-40 servers in use. General comments: The VMS server was written and is maintained by J. Lance Wilkinson, Foteos Macrides, Bruce Tanner and others on the VMSGopher-L@trln.lib.unc.edu mailing list. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VM/CMS Foster [Page 33]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Primary Contact: Name: Rick Troth Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU Telephone: Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/ Brazos.IS.Rice.EDU:/pub/vmcms/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 2.4 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations. Approximate number of such servers in use: Unknown. General comments: This server was written and is maintained by Rick Troth. This server is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS server. There is also another VM/CMS server: the Vienna VM/CMS server. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VM/CMS. Primary Contact: Name: Gerhard Gonter Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.at Telephone: Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/ Foster [Page 34]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 2.00.00 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations. Approximate number of such servers in use: Unknown. General comments: This server was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter. This server is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS server. There is also another VM/CMS server: the Rice VM/CMS server. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: MVS Primary Contact: Name: Steve Bacher Email address: seb@draper.com Telephone: Server software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 2.1 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher server for IBM MVS installations. Approximate number of such servers in use: Unknown. General comments: This server was written and is maintained by Steve Bacher. Foster [Page 35]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Unix veronica server Primary Contact: Name: Steve Foster Email address: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu Telephone: Server software available from: Via FTP: veronica.scs.unr.edu:/veronica Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: veronica server software Approximate number of such servers in use: Unknown. General comments: Written and maintained by Steve Foster at the University of Nevada. Future plans: Additional support for searching on Gopher+ attributes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Macintosh Primary Contact Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Foster [Page 36]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP. General comments: Macintosh TurboGopher is as of this writing, the fastest Gopher client available for the Mac. Written by the Minnesota Gopher Development Team. Supports Gopher+. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Macintosh Primary Contact: Name: Don Gilbert, Biology, Indiana University - Bloomington Email address: Software@Bio.Indiana.Edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: Indiana University Gopher Server IUBio Software+Data/GopherApp, Mac Gopher client Via FTP: ftp.bio.indiana.edu:/util/gopher/ gopherapp/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP. Foster [Page 37]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 General comments: Written and maintained by Don Gilbert. Supports Gopher+. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Macintosh Primary Contact: Name: 'Jonzy' Email address: JONZY@CC.UTAH.EDU Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: gopher.cc.utah.edu in Testing directory Via FTP: ftp.cc.utah.edu:/pub/gopher/Macintosh/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP. Has a browser style interface. Uses customized Telnet application. General comments: Written and maintained by 'Jonzy'. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: UNIX (curses/EMACS based client) Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Foster [Page 38]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: The UNIX curses-based client. General comments: Written and maintained by Paul Lindner. Supports Gopher+. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: UNIX (simple client does not use CURSES) Primary Contact: Name: Sean Fuller Email address: fuller@aedc-vax.af.mil Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 0.3 Brief Scope and Characteristics: sgopher is a simple gopher client for inetd/batch/online; it does not Foster [Page 39]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 require much of the terminal other than it be 80X24 characters. It can be run stand alone or it can be launched from inetd. It doesn't use termcap or curses. Sgopher outputs the pair at the end of line and requires a after each command to support more terminal types. General comments: Runs on VMS, IRIX, Ultrix, AIX, Solaris 2.x, Solaris 1.x Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Xgopher: UNIX XWindows based client Primary Contact: Name: Allan Tuchman Email address: tuchman@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Makes use of the X interface. General comments: Written and maintained by Allan Tuchman. Future plans: Gopher+ support planned for the future. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Foster [Page 40]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Xgopher: UNIX XWindows based client Primary Contact: Name: Andrew Scherpbier Email address: xvgopher@gopher.sdsu.edu turtle@sciences.sdsu.edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Makes use of the X interface... displays a way cool chewing gopher icon while information is being downloaded. General comments: XView based gopher client. Future plans: Gopher+ support. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: NeXT: NeXTstep client Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Foster [Page 41]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Makes full use of the NeXT interface. General comments: Initial version written by Max Tardiveau. Now maintained by Paul Lindner. Future plans: ------------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: DOS TurboVision w/Clarkson packet drivers Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Character-based graphics and windows under DOS. Uses either Clarkson Packet drivers (CRWYN packet drivers) and a built-in TCP/IP protocol stack or Ftp, Inc.'s protocol stack (PC/TCP). Foster [Page 42]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 General comments: Gopher+ support. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VMS. Primary Contact: Name: Mark Van Overbeke Email address: mark@ummvxm.mrs.umn.edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 0.6 Brief Scope and Characteristics: General comments: The VMS client was written and is maintained by Mark Van Overbeke. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VMS. Primary Contact: Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu Telephone: +1-612-625-1300 Foster [Page 43]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 1.12 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Identical to Unix gopher1.12. Works on a VMS 5.5-2 system running MultiNet 3.1B. UCX and Wollongong are also supported. General comments: A port of the University of Minnesota Unix client to VMS. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VM/CMS. Primary Contact: Name: Rick Troth Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Foster [Page 44]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations. General comments: This client was written and is maintained by Rick Troth. This client is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS client. There is also another VM/CMS client: the Vienna VM/CMS client. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: VM/CMS. Primary Contact: Name: Gerhard Gonter Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.at Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations. General comments: This client was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter. This client is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS client. There is also another VM/CMS client: the Rice VM/CMS client. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Foster [Page 45]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: DOS with PC/TCP. Primary Contact: Name: Steven E. Newton Email address: snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via FTP: oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu:/public/dos/misc/ Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher client for DOS with PC/TCP General comments: Written and maintained by Steven E. Newton Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: DOS with PC-NFS. Primary Contact: Name: Stan Barber Email address: sob@TMC.EDU Telephone: Client software available from: Via FTP: bcm.tmc.edu:/nfs/gopher.exe Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher client for DOS with PC-NFS Foster [Page 46]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 General comments: Written and maintained by Stan Barber Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: DOS Novell LWP Gopher Client Primary Contact: Name: Jeremy T. James Email address: blackp@med.umich.edu Telephone: Client software available from: Via FTP: lennon.itn.med.umich.edu:pub/gopher Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: DOS Novell LWP Gopher Client General comments: Written and maintained by Jeremy T. James. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Windows 3.1 with Winsock or PC/NFS. Primary Contact: Name: Martyn Hampson Email address: m.hampson@ic.ac.uk Telephone: Client software available from: Foster [Page 47]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: lister.cc.ic.ac.uk /pub/wingopher Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: (please check software distribution) Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher client for Windows; uses either Winsock DLL or PC/NFS network interface. General comments: Written and maintained by Martyn Hampson. Gopher+ support. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Windows with Winsock and ToolBook. Primary Contact: Name: Kevin Gamiel Email address: kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.org Telephone: Client software available from: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/gophbook.zip Location of more information: As above. Latest version number: 1.0 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Gopher client for Windows; uses Asymetrix's ToolBook to paint the screen and speaks to the network via a Winsock DLL. Foster [Page 48]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 General comments: Written and maintained by Kevin Gamiel Future plans: ------------------------------ Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Air Gopher commercial client for windows Primary Contact: Name: David Pool, Spry Software, Inc. Email address: dave@spry.com Telephone: +1-206-447-0300 Client software available from: Location of more information: Latest version number: Brief Scope and Characteristics: General Comments: Future plans: Gopher+ support planned. ------------------------------ Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: Win Gopher Primary Contact: Name: Bill Easton, Notis, Inc. Telephone: +1-708-866-0159 Client software available from: Location of more information: Latest version number: Foster [Page 49]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Brief Scope and Characteristics: General Comments: Requires Winsock. Supports gopher. Future plans: Gopher+ support planned. ------------------------------ Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Platform: GINA Primary Contact: Name: Mark Resmer, California Technology Project Email address: resmer@eis.calstale.edu Client software available from: Location of more information: Latest version number: Brief Scope and Characteristics: General Comments: Macintosh and windows clients include netnews, email. Future plans: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites: List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration sites for this application. site name ip address login as serving area ---------------------------------------------------------------- consultant.micro.umn.edu 134.84.132.4 gopher North America gopher.uiuc.edu 128.174.33.160 gopher North America panda.uiowa.edu 128.255.40.201 panda North America info.anu.edu.au 150.203.84.20 info Australia Foster [Page 50]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 gopher.chalmers.se 129.16.221.40 gopher Sweden tolten.puc.cl 146.155.1.16 gopher South America ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Title: (1) Gopher Protocol and (2) Gopher+ Proposed Extensions Location details: Via Gopher: U of M Gopher Information About Gopher Gopher Software Distribution Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu /pub/gopher/ Title: RFC 1436 The Internet Gopher Protocol (a distributed document search and retrieval protocol) Via FTP: nic.ddn.mil /rfc/rfc1436.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: The Whole Internet, Ed Kroll, O'Reilly, 1992 The Internet Gopher, 'ConneXions', July 1992, Interop. Exploring Internet GopherSpace 'The Internet Society News', v1n2 1992 The Internet Gopher Protocol, Proceedings of the Twenty-Third IETF, CNRI, Section 5.3 Internet Gopher, Proceedings of Canadian Networking '92 The Internet Gopher, INTERNET: Getting Started, SRI International, Section 10.5.5 Tools help Internet users discover on-line treasures, Computerworld, July 20, 1992 TCP/IP Network Administration, O'Reilly. Balakrishan, B. (Oct 1992) 'SPIGopher: Making SPIRES databases accessible through the Gopher protocol'. SPIRES Fall '92 Workshop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Foster [Page 51]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Foster [Page 52]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 HYTELNET Date template updated or checked: 28 February, 1994 By: Name: Peter Scott Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: HYTELNET Brief Description of Tool: HYTELNET is a terminate-and-stay-resident hypertext browser, which gives a user full instructions for logging into telnet-accessible sites on the Internet i.e., library catalogs, campus-wide information systems, bulletin boards, directory services, gophers, etc. The browser does not make remote connections. A Unix/VMS version, which does make remote connections, has been written by Earl Fogel, Computing Services, University of Saskatchewan. Macintosh and Amiga versions are also available (see ftp site information below). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: Peter Scott Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca Postal Address: 324 8th Street East Saskatoon, Sask, Canada S7H 0P5 Telephone: +1-306-966-5920 Fax: +1-306-966-6040 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: Name: Peter Scott Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca Telephone: +1-306-966-5920 Level of support offered: o volunteer Foster [Page 53]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Hours available: 8:00 a.m - 3:30 p.m CST ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: None ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: None ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: HYTELNET Updates Distribution Address: hytel-l@kentvm.kent.edu Administration: By listowner Peter Scott aa375@freenet.carleton.ca Description: To inform members of new versions of the software, and to keep users informed of new/changed/defunct Telnet-accessible sites To subscribe send e-mail message to listserv@kentvm.kent.edu with no subject, and sub hytel-l firstname lastname as the body of the message. Archive: None ----------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: bit.listserv.hytel-l ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: What it runs over: Other NIR tools this interworks with: Foster [Page 54]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Future plans: Possible translation into gopher format ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 21 December, 1993 By: Name: Peter Scott Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca Platform: DOS Primary Contact Name: Peter Scott Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca Telephone: +1-306-966-5920 Client software available from: ftp.usask.ca in pub/hytelnet/pc as hytelnXX.zip, where XX = latest version number. pub/hytelnet/{amiga,unix,vms,mac}/* for respective versions Location of more information: finger scottp@jester.usask.ca Latest version number: 6.6 (Issued October 23, 1993) Brief Scope and Characteristics: General comments: Future plans: To contine to produce updated versions in current form. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites: The Unix/VMS version can be accessed via telnet to access.usask.ca (login: hytelnet) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Foster [Page 55]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Documentation: None ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: HYTELNET as software for accessing the Internet: a personal perspective on the development of HYTELNET. Electronic Networking, Vol. 2, No. 1 Spring 1992 pp 38-44 Hypertext...Information at your fingertips. In: Designing Information: new roles for librarians. Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Foster [Page 56]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 NETFIND Date template updated or checked: 1 March, 1994 By: Name: Mike Schwartz Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: Netfind Brief Description of Tool: Given the name of a person on the Internet and a rough description of where the person works, Netfind attempts to locate information about the person. People can be specified by first, last, or login name. Their place of work can be described by name and/or the city/state/country. Netfind provides textual information about people, when it is able to locate such information. It is not a directory in the usual sense of the word. Rather, it searches for people using a number of Internet services and heuristics about how to locate user information. Because of the techniques it uses, Netfind can locate information about more people than any other Internet user directory - over 5 million people in over 9,000 domains worldwide when last measured. You can use the University of Colorado Netfind server by telnet to bruno.cs.colorado.edu: login as 'netfind' (with no password). Help screens providing more detailed instructions and technical information are available there. There is currently no way for non- Internet users to access Netfind (e.g., using an email interface). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: Mike Schwartz Email address: netfind-dvl@cs.colorado.edu Postal Address: Department of Computer Science University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0430 Telephone: Declined. (Note: Netfind is currently a volunteer service. We do not have staff resources to support telephone inquiries.) Foster [Page 57]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 Fax: Declined. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: There are an increasing number of Netfind servers being set up at various Network Information Centers (including the U.S. Internic). However, since Netfind is provided as a volunteer service at this time, there is no help line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: Gopher, NIR, IIIR, IRTF-RD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: None. Netfind was originally a research prototype. It is offered as-is, on an unsupported basis. From time to time the original developers make improvements, but it is not currently funded. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: Address: netfind-users@cs.colorado.edu Administration: netfind-users-request@cs.colorado.edu Description: mailing list for user changes and updates. Archive: None. ---------------------------- Address: netfind-servers@cs.colorado.edu Administration: netfind-servers-request@cs.colorado.edu Description: mailing list for sites running Netfind servers. Archive: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Foster [Page 58]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 News groups: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: NVT ASCII. At present no formal protocol is used. We are currently implementing a client/ server protocol, which will allow better clients and more efficient servers. What it runs over: TCP/IP. Other NIR tools this interworks with: Finger, Gopher, PH, SMTP, USENET news, UUCP maps, Various NIC databases, Various service logs, WAIS, WHOIS, X.500, DNS Future plans: Many. Telnet to the server and see the 'Future Directions' menu under the 'Frequently Asked Questions' help menu. In addition to the above list, we are currently exploring possibilities to integrate the Netfind seed database gathering mechanisms into the Fremont framework, to make the process more scalable, and to support other types of information (e.g., to help with mapping the Internet). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: October 12, 1993 By: Name: Mike Schwartz Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu Platform: SunOS 4.1 or more recent. Uncertain whether Netfind will run on Solaris. Primary Contact: Name: Mike Schwartz Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu Telephone: (not supplied) Server software available from: ftp.cs.colorado.edu, in the Foster [Page 59]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 directory pub/cs/distribs/netfind. Location of more information: in above directory. Latest version number: 4.4. Brief Scope and Characteristics: This version of Netfind incorporates the ability for sites to register a set of URLs in their DNS server, pointing Netfind to a variety of different sources for information. Netfind can now tap information from X.500, WHOIS, and PH, in addition to the previous sources it used (finger, etc.). For more information see ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/distribs/netfind/Netfind.WP.URLs Approximate number of such servers in use: 17 public servers; hundreds or thousands of private stand-alone clients. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: The Netfind client is available in the same release as the server. See above. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites: Site name: bruno.cs.colorado.edu The current list is: archie.au (AARNet, Melbourne, Australia) bruno.cs.colorado.edu (University of Colorado, Boulder) dino.conicit.ve (Nat. Council for Techn. & Scien. Research, Venezuela) ds.internic.net (InterNIC Directory and DB Services, S. Plainfield, NJ) eis.calstate.edu (California State University, Fullerton, CA) lincoln.technet.sg (Technet Unit, Singapore) malloco.ing.puc.cl (Catholic University of Chile, Santiago) monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk (Imperial College, London, England) mudhoney.micro.umn.edu (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) netfind.anu.edu.au (Australian National University, Canberra) netfind.ee.mcgill.ca (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) netfind.if.usp.br (University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil) netfind.oc.com (OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, Texas) netfind.vslib.cz (Liberec University of Technology, Czech Republic) nic.nm.kr (Korea Network Information Center, Taejon, Korea) Foster [Page 60]  RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994 nic.uakom.sk (Academy of Sciences, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia) redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: There are three primary sets of information available about Netfind. The first is a set of help information, available in the FTP distribution as well as from the help screens available from any Netfind server. This information includes a fairly complete set of Frequently Asked Questions, as well as user help information and pointers to other related information. The second is a pre-publication version of a technical paper about Netfind, available in ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/ Netfind.Gathering.ps.Z (compressed PostScript) or ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/ Netfind.Gathering.txt.Z (compressed ASCII). An earlier paper is also available in ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/ White.Pages.ps.Z or ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/ White.Pages.txt.Z, containing some of the original ideas in Netfind and measurements of the system. The Netfind