Zen and the Art of the Internet   By: Brendan P. Kehoe (1970-)

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Part A Zen and the Art of the Internet Copyright (c) 1992 Brendan P. Kehoe Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this guide provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this booklet under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this booklet into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the author. Zen and the Art of the Internet A Beginner's Guide to the Internet First Edition January 1992 by Brendan P. Kehoe This is revision 1.0 of February 2, 1992. Copyright (c) 1992 Brendan P. Kehoe The composition of this booklet was originally started because the Computer Science department at Widener University was in desperate need of documentation describing the capabilities of this ``great new Internet link'' we obtained. It's since grown into an effort to acquaint the reader with much of what's currently available over the Internet. Aimed at the novice user, it attempts to remain operating system ``neutral'' little information herein is specific to Unix, VMS, or any other environment. This booklet will, hopefully, be usable by nearly anyone. A user's session is usually offset from the rest of the paragraph, as such: prompt> command The results are usually displayed here. The purpose of this booklet is two fold: first, it's intended to serve as a reference piece, which someone can easily grab on the fly and look something up. Also, it forms a foundation from which people can explore the vast expanse of the Internet. Zen and the Art of the Internet doesn't spend a significant amount of time on any one point; rather, it provides enough for people to learn the specifics of what his or her local system offers. One warning is perhaps in order this territory we are entering can become a fantastic time sink. Hours can slip by, people can come and go, and you'll be locked into Cyberspace. Remember to do your work! With that, I welcome you, the new user, to The Net. brendan@cs.widener.edu Chester, PA Acknowledgements Certain sections in this booklet are not my original work rather, they are derived from documents that were available on the Internet and already aptly stated their areas of concentration. The chapter on Usenet is, in large part, made up of what's posted monthly to news.announce.newusers, with some editing and rewriting. Also, the main section on archie was derived from whatis.archie by Peter Deutsch of the McGill University Computing Centre. It's available via anonymous FTP from archie.mcgill.ca. Much of what's in the telnet section came from an impressive introductory document put together by SuraNet. Some definitions in the one are from an excellent glossary put together by Colorado State University. This guide would not be the same without the aid of many people on The Net, and the providers of resources that are already out there. I'd like to thank the folks who gave this a read through and returned some excellent comments, suggestions, and criticisms, and those who provided much needed information on the fly. Glee Willis deserves particular mention for all of his work; this guide would have been considerably less polished without his help... Continue reading book >>