Subject: #2 Getting Connected

From: Jim Gerland - Network User Support <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 10:11:07 EDT

NAVIGATING THE INTERNET: LET'S GO GOPHERIN'

Richard J. Smith and Jim Gerland

GETTING CONNECTED

There are several ways to get information from a Gopher server. On
a Unix, VMS, or CMS system, if a Gopher client is installed, preferably
by the systems' administrator, all you have to do is type the word
"gopher" at the system prompt. The machine immediately takes over
and goes out to retrieve a menu from a Gopher server-the first door
to what is  called "Gopherspace"

You may have a DOS or windows or Mac menuing system that allows you to
click on a Gopher item that gives you direct connection or an
X window system that will start at a command.  It depends on your
system and if a Gopher client has been installed.

Networks, however, do crash from time to time, or are down for
maintenance, etc, so using a substitute Gopher may be needed at
some point. If you have a gopher client on your system you may want
to go directly to a specific Gopher server.

You use the word "gopher," then the remote machine address to get
directly into a Gopher server.  You will then receive a menu from
the remote server.  You do need a gopher client and a TCP/IP connection
in order for this to work.

Here are addresses of several remote machines:

Name=Welcome to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gopher
Type=0
Port=70
Path=0/Welcome
Host=vixen.cso.uiuc.edu

(I'll use the above Gopher in my examples.)

Name=University of Minnesota Gopher Server, Home of the Gopher
Host=gopher.tc.umn.edu

Name=InterNIC-- Internet's new $12 million Network Information
Center
Host=gopher.ds.internic.net

Name=Merit   -- Merit/NSFNET Information Services (Internet Info)
Host=nic.merit.edu

Name=UB Wings - State Uninversity of New York at Buffalo CWIS
Host=wings.buffalo.edu

Name=University of Michigan GOpherBLUE Service
Host=gopher.uis.itd.umich.edu

Name=University of North Texas
Host=gopher.unt.edu

Name=Apple Computer Higher Education gopher server
Host=info.hed.apple.com

Name=CERFnet Network Information Services
Host=gopher.cerf.net

Name=CNUCE Institute - National Research Council of Italy, Pisa,
Host=gopher.cnuce.cnr.it

Name=Australian National University
Host=info.anu.edu.au

Name=Ben Gurion University Gopher (Israel)
Host=gopher.bgu.ac.il

Name=CSCS - Swiss Scientific Computing Center, (CH)
Host=pobox.cscs.ch

Name=DENet Danish Academic Network, (DK)
Host=gopher.denet.dk

Name=EUnet in Germany, (DE)
Host=ftp.Germany.eu.net

If you don't have a Gopher client installed on your local machine,
you can use telnet to access a Gopher client.  Depending on your
operating system, you can use the word "telnet" and a remote
machine address to access Gopher logging in as "gopher", in most
cases. Your telnet may work differently.  You may telnet from a
menu system or from an icon depending on your system.
Here are some publicly accessible telnet gopher sites.

Hostname                  IP#              Login   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
gopher.sunet.se           192.36.125.2     gopher  Europe
info.anu.edu.au           150.203.84.20    info    Australia
gopher.chalmers.se        129.16.221.40    gopher  Sweden
tolten.puc.cl             146.155.1.16     gopher  South America
ecnet.ec                  157.100.45.2     gopher  Ecuador

tn3270 Public Logins:

Hostname                  IP#              Login   Area
------------------------- ---------------  ------  -------------
pubinfo.ais.umn.edu       128.101.109.1    -none-  North America

It is recommended that you run gopher from a Gopher client which is
free over the Internet.  The client/server based Gopher program is
more efficient and saves network resources compared to telneting
to a site.  We will talk about getting and installing a client
later in the Course.

There are other ways to access Gopher.  For example, the World Wide
Web (WWW) will give you access to Gopherspace.

If you have a client installed it is most likely pointed at a
preferred gopher server for your institution. The first method of
typing "gopher" will get you there in the easiest way possible.

Richard J. Smith
[email-masked]
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Jim Gerland
[email-masked]
State University of New York at Buffalo
Academic Services, Computing and Information Technology