The Online World

rican research organization, claimed (1992) that we can send electronic mail to more than 10 million personal mailboxes. We believe the figure to be much higher. The Matrix News (Texas, U.S.A.) cla

es by ordinary mail will cost 11 times more. This letter takes several days to reach the destination, while email messages arrive almost instantly. Often, you can send email messages to several recipients in one operation - without paying extra for the pleasure. Compare this to sending to several parties by fax! You do not have to buy envelopes and stamps, fold the sheet, put it into the envelope, and bring it to a mailbox. Just let the computer call your favorite email service to send the letter. The recipient does not have to sit by the computer waiting for your mail. Upon receipt, it will be automatically stored in his mailbox. He can read it when he has time. The recipient can print it locally, and it will be a perfect document, no different to on

is what it normally takes for a C

t to the "post off

MP

says CompuServe.

file (text or bina

o

ompuServe. You en

ust my mailbox nu

u to enter Subject

our message h

ter, the message

line to CompuServe

t away. If not, it wi

und to

software to handle the mechanics of sending and receiving mail (see Chapter 16). Other systems require different commands to send email. Ulrik a

Ulrik will reply with "Cc:" to allow you to 'carbon copy' the message to other people. If you don't want that, press ENTER and the message is on its way. While I wrote this book, I had to

ages as fax (to over 15 million fax machines), telex (to over 1.8 million telex machines), and as ordinary paper mail. We have tested this successfully on CompuServe, MCI Mail and other services. On CompuServe, replace "Odd de Presno 75755,1327" with ">FAX: 4737027111". My fax number is +47 370 27111. On MCI Mail type "CREATE:". MCI asks for "To:," and you type "Odd de Presno (Fax)". MCI asks for "Country:". You enter "Norway". By "RECIPIENT FAX NO" enter "37027111" (the code for international calls). The country code for Norway, 01147, is added automatically. By "Options?," press ENTER. When MCI Mail asks for more reci

ailbox system code, and sometimes also routing information. The problem is that there is no universal addressing format. Finding out how to write a given address may be surprisingly difficult. Some services are not set up for exchange of email with other services. This is the case with my bulleti

lboxes that they use rarely or never. For example, don't try to send mail to my mailbox on Dow Jones/News Retrieval. I onl

or example, you may have to use a domain address to send through Internet, and

r system's network(s). Sometimes, you can use a commercial mail relay service to get your message across (see chapte

destination. For example, a message sent from the Ulrik computer in Oslo must be routed th

d it's when we include these systems and their connections that we call it the Internet. Others call it WorldNet or the Matrix. Internet users can exchange mail with users on networks like EUnet, JANET, Uninett, BITNET, UUCP, CompuServe, MCI Mail, EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflicNet, GreenNet, Web, Pegasus, AppleLink, Alternex, Nicarao, FredsNaetet, UUNET, PSI, Usenet, FidoNet and ma

- On the Internet, the general fo

e@somewh

ional Internet ma

@extern

China, Greece, Iceland, and Armenia using this address. Some users must send their messages through a gateway to the Internet. In these cases, the address may have to be changed to reflect this: Users of AppleLink use opresno@extern.uio.no@INTERNET# . Those on JANET use opresno%extern.uio.no@eanrelay.ac.uk. On SprintMail, use ("RFC-822": , SITE:INTERNET) . CompuServe subscribers use >INTERNET:opresno@extern.uio.no . The cor

27@compu

that you are subscribed to the club for lovers of Japanese food (J-FOOD-L@JPNKNU10.BITNET, see chapter 6). You have a mailbox on INTERNET, and want to send a recipe to the other members using the address J-FOOD-L. On some Internet systems, you can simply use the address: J-FOOD-L@JPNKNU10.BITNET , and your mai

NU10.BITNET@C

ng will happen: First, the message will be sent to system CUNYVM at the EDUcation site CUNY. CUNYVM investigates the address, and discovers that the message is for BITNET. It cuts o

anization is in the middle. "Pyramid" is the name of the network. Some email systems can use bang addresses directly. (Note that the ! character has a special function on Unix computers. Here, you may have to type the address as pyramid\!cdp\!jsmall to avoid unwanted error messages. The \ character tells Unix to regard the next character

p!jsmall@u

turn the address into a typical Internet address. Write the address elements in the

%pyramid@u

ns to be down. (There is a trend for UUCP sites to register Internet domain names. This helps alleviate the problem of path failures.) Som

p-lsd.cos.hp.com!old

ernet address of a us

eached using a muc

may use the following address

uio.no!

ul. The conference INFONETS (General network forum) is another source. Here, the INTERNET postmasters discuss their addressing problems. Activity is high, and you will learn a lot about the noble art of addr

ERV@NDSUV

rite anything here.

TS Your-first-na

, alter the address to route your sub

l to LISTSERV@DEARN.BITNET. See "Directories of services | | and subscri

ibrary and a journal for documents about the efforts to bring the net to lesser-developed nations. Archived documents are available by anonymous ftp from the directory global_net at dhvx20.csudh.edu (155.

ffers a cc:Mail gateway. Lotus cc:Mail is a PC Lan based email system used in corporate, government and other organiz

support@

ernet through CompuServe's MHS ga

erforma.mhs.

N gateways use othe

c and private networks throughout the world. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) uses X.400 as a transport mechanism for coordination of electronic part ordering, stock control and payment. X.400 is used to connect EDI syst

PRMD:uninett,O:uio,

mes. On other X.400 networks, the address must be writte

ternet,"RFC-822":

sno(a)extern.uio.

TERNET,"RFC-822":

,ID:

tern.uio.no @ GATEWAY

I once had on the X.400 host Telemax in N

NO/O=KUD.DATASEKR

o Telemail in the US, I

/O=TELENET.MAIL/ADMD=T

, then complexity increases. One Norwegian UUCP us

x.telemax.no!/I=D/G=ODD/

m an X.400 system to

e following ad

try

= Com

= C

7575

used on X.400 systems

A rather than the ISO

ORWAY, C:USA,

e important

ntry code (on

for public system

e for connected

eviat

nizati

anizat

me (las

name (fi

ls (in t

d attributes, key

idual systems to

station, user co

(attention name

mile,

rsona

@ cannot be used w

Internet. Tr

% cannot be used w

Internet. Tr

er ! (used in "

ter " used in

lls X.400 that an In

not work on al

when sending to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu. Enter "pistserv@vm1.nodak.edu" instead of "LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu". This address is wrong. Below, we've printed the complete bounced message. It contains a lot of technical information. Most lines have no interest. Also, the message is much larger than the original message, which contained three lines only.

NoDak.EDU Fri De

:

NoDak.edu by pat.ui

o.no>; Fri, 18 Dec

1.BITNET by VM1.NoDak

295; Fri, 18 De

M1.BITNET by NDSUVM1

309; Fri, 18 De

18 Dec 92 0

Mailer

sno@exte

mail deli

tus

transaction

olumbia MAILER R2.07

ELO N

1.BITNET H

M:

extern.uio.no

O:

@NDSUVM1>...

0

input. End wi

ivered to some o

h local us

0

Columbia MAILER B

message

NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R

ec 92 05:

no by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IB

ec 92 05:

.uio.no by pat.uio.n

o.no>; Fri, 18 Dec

uio.no ; Fri, 18 De

8 Dec 1992 1

esno@exte

2181153.AAulrik2

serv@vm1

ect:

x ki

ally of no interest. Hidden in the second pa

h local us

nding it to the corrected address. The text and codes used in bounced messages vary depending on what type of mailbox system you're using, and the type of system that is bouncing your mail. Above, MAILER@VM1.NoDak.E

for help. Send him | | a copy of the complete text of the bounced message up to | | and including the

eply command. If this feature is not available, use the sender's address as given in the mail header. The bounced message contained two mail headers: the header of my original message (in

Mailer

esno@exte

in sending a message back to MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU since this is the address of an automatic mail handling program. Write to Postmaster@VM1.NoDak.EDU to talk to

. If you wish to respond to the author only, | | make sure that the only addre

e is no complete global directory of available electronic address

f by calling the recipient for

ystem. When trying to send mail to this address, the Mailer-Daemon complains: "This is a non-existent address." Again, the first person to contact for help is your local postmaster. On most Internet hosts this is simple. If you have a mailbox on the ULRIK computer at the University of Oslo, send a request for help to postmaster@ulrik.uio.no . If you are on COLNET in Buenos Aires, send to postmaster@colnetr.edu.ar . POSTMASTER is also the address to turn to on BITNET. Users of FidoNet or RelayNet,

VICE@NI

: WHOIS

e

s is the case, start at the "top of the pyramid." Say your desired recipient lives

VICE@NI

WHOIS D

e

100 other "whois-servers" in more than 15 countries. The systems whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.ripe.net cover Japan and Europe. The rest of them provide information about local users. (A list is available via anonymous FTP from sipb.mit.edu in the file /pub/wh

dir@mcs

ct: a

e

rth American users may use LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET, which is a host in North Dakota. Japanese users should write to the host LISTSERV@JPNKNU10.BITNET. When retrieving for BITNET host information mail

FINHUTC (called a "node in the network"). You

=rules //rules dd * search * in b

s you the fol

here node = FINHUTC ->

-- --- ----- 0910 85/11 FINHUTC Hels

ssage to the LISTSER

dd one line in which

910 (given in t

e t

ob e

search

les

itearn where

n

nt

rn a report with a

s part

: FI

ntr

: FINHUT

: E

i University of T

Salminen;LK-HS@FIN

utio;POSTMAST@FIN

Voutilainen;OPR@FIN

(NETSERV,POS

ET databases, send this message to your f

ERV@FINHU

ct: n

ET LIST

f X.400 messages may eventually be done automatically without the user needing to know the identity of the recipient's mailbox computer. X.500 will certainly help

commercial gateway-services like DASnet (see appendix 1). To send mail from one Dialcom system to another, use the syntax 6007:EWP002. This address points to

079@dcdia

d users with DASnet

do

-

etwork can send and re

a FidoNet user may us

my Intern

user UUCP at 1:105/4

he message sh

sno@exte

e address before entering

are composed by th

e or zone:ne

his node has an automatic gateway to the Internet. Another example: Jan Stozek is sysop of "Home of PCQ" in Warsaw, Poland. The Node number of his BBS is 10. He receives mail through Net number 480.

@p.f.n

me> is the per

s the person

om the Internet to J

f10.n480.z2

s Ola.Garstad@f15.n502.z2.fidonet.org , when sending mail to him through the Internet.

re inf

---

o BITNET or Internet

" It describes how

ms like AppleLink, BI

, Envoy, FidoNet, Ge

aceNet, Sinet, Span,

e BITNET address LIS

f the mess

ETWOR

o find people's E-mail addresses" is regularly posted to the Usenet group news.answers. It is also available by email from mai