1996 by John December (john@december.com ). You may use this document for any personal or educational purpose. For-profit distribution requires permission.
Provided ``as is'' without expressed or implied warranty.
PURPOSE: to list tools available on the Internet that are used for network information retrieval (NIR) and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). This is not meant to be a strict categorization or an exhaustive list, rather a reference catalog. I welcome comments and suggestions.
AUDIENCE: those getting started in understanding what you can do on the Internet in NIR and CMC; for experienced users, it collects and summarizes sources of information.
ASSUMPTION: You have access to and know how to use finger, ftp, gopher, http, telnet, email, World Wide Web, or Usenet newsgroups.
REFERENCES: The references which are listed at the end of this document provide very useful guides to these tools.
ACTION: The Action notation that I had described in earlier versions of this document is in the internet-tools.tax file.
NOTES:
1. Respect your access privileges to these tools.
2. This information changes; additions/comments welcome.
3. For demo purposes, I have used Unix commands; certainly Unix is not the only operating system required for these tools and forums. Apologies to those who don't have Unix.
4. On the classification (NIR v. CMC): some tools could be used for either, such as telnet and email. I've placed them in what I feel are "principal use" categories, e.g., telnet is used mostly for NIR, and email is commonly used for CMC (although both have applications in the other category).
5. Many of these tools have applicability off the Internet. Usenet, for example, is not confined to the Internet, and Internet email (and thus LISTSERV files) can be exchanged with communication systems off the Internet (BITNET, fidonet, commercial services.) So this list is not Internet (only) tools, but tools that can be used on the Internet.
6. A $ sign indicates a non-public domain tool or interface.
7. The easiest way to use this list is to access the hypertext version at URL http://www.rpi.edu/Internet/Guides/decemj/itools/top.html
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