Browsing the Internet with Public Domain Tools

In addition to FTP and Telnet, there are a variety of applications available on the Internet to navigate it, including Mosaic, Gopher, Archie, and WAIS. These applications allow you to easily access the Internet, and they offer greater searching and browsing capabilities than FTP and Telnet. The following sections provide information about several of these applications. You should contact your Internet access provider to find out locations for these programs.

Note

There are many TCP/IP applications from other vendors that offer Internet browsing, viewing, and connection capabilities. Many of these applications are 16-bit and do not currently work with the 32-bit version of TCP/IP provided with Windows 95.

To download these public domain and shareware applications, you need to use FTP as described in Appendix A, "Command-Line Commands Summary."

Caution Windows 95 provides a 32-bit Windows Sockets interface (Winsock.dll). Any attempt to override the Windows 95 interface could cause TCP/IP applications to not work correctly or could cause the computer to stop responding.

Using Mosaic

NCSA Mosaic is a graphical network navigational tool that provides users with access to networked information on the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) distributed information system. NCSA Mosaic enables the user to retrieve and display a wide variety of data types, including text, image, video, and audio. It uses a hypertext user interface similar to Windows Help files, so you can click on a word or image of interest, and Mosaic connects you to the appropriate resource. There are now numerous versions of Mosaic available.

To access Mosaic

  1. Connect to ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.
  2. At the ftp> prompt, type cd /Web
  3. Read the FAQ.TXT file in this directory and follow the instructions for installing Mosaic.
  4. To connect to the Microsoft Word Wide Web server, click in the Document URL box, and then type http://www.microsoft.com
  5. Click the highlighted words to navigate around the web site.

Using Gopher

Gopher is a tool that offers menu-based access to Internet information. Gopher hides the intricacies of FTP from the user and bypasses complicated TCP/IP addresses and connections. Users can choose information from a list of menus, and Gopher makes the connections that are necessary to retrieve the files. Gopher is most helpful when you need to find specific pieces of information on the Internet.

Using Archie

Archie is a server that supports a database of anonymous FTP sites and their contents. It was created by the Archive Group at McGill University in Montreal, where it is maintained. Archie stores the contents, descriptions, and filenames about a great number of FTP sites. Archie applications are available from many major Internet sites.

Using Wide-Area Information Server (WAIS)

With WAIS, you can browse the hundreds of databases and library catalogs on the Internet in an organized way. WAIS searches the contents of documents based on words as opposed to titles, which is what as other search tools use. After a search, WAIS displays a list of documents. This list, however, can be extremely large, so WAIS sorts the documents based on how many times a key word was found in each one. If the list is too large, you can narrow the search by specifying categories.

Tips for Adding a Gateway Server

A dedicated connection to the Internet provides many advantages over connecting by using a modem with a telephone line to an Internet access provider. Having a gateway server can improve performance and reduce costs. You'll need to set up hardware and obtain a domain name so others can send information to your gateway.

If you set up a dedicated computer to act as a router or gateway server to the Internet, it should use a high-speed connection, such as T1 or 56KB lines, instead of a slower telephone line. The T1 line connects to the computer using a special network adapter.

Networks that connect to the public Internet must obtain an official network ID from the InterNIC to guarantee IP network ID uniqueness. The InterNIC can be contacted by using electronic mail at info@internic.net (in the United States, call (800) 444–4345, or for Canada and overseas, call (619) 455–4600). Internet registration requests can be sent to hostmaster@internic.net. You can also use FTP to connect to is.internic.net, then log on as anonymous and change to the /INFOSOURCE/FAQ directory. After receiving a network ID, the local network administrator must assign unique host IDs for computers within the local network.