Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill From: bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: questions Message-ID: <1989Jul28.141107.3487@twwells.com> Date: 28 Jul 89 14:11:07 GMT References: <4051@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> Distribution: usa Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Lines: 174 In article <4051@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> eileen@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Eileen M Garland) writes: : How do I determine my own (or anyone else's) address? I'm presuming that you are asking how to do that when you have an e-mail or news message in front of you? Well, the first thing to do is to look at the bottom of the message for the "signature". This is a bit of text that a user typically adds to every message; most give some kind of e-mail address. Here, for example, is mine: --- Bill { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill bill@twwells.com There are several pieces of information in my signature. One is "Bill". That is just my name. Right under it is "bill@twwells.com", that is one of my e-mail addresses. That particular e-mail address is called a "domain address" (or one of a number of similar things). You recognize it as such because it has a user name, followed by an `@', and ended by a "word" with one or more `.'s in it. The "bill" part of it is my user name; the "twwells.com" part is a "domain name" which identifies the computer I am on. If a signature has a domain name in it, that is the ideal name (assuming you can make it work; not always true, sigh). But for those souls who are unable to make use of domain names, I have also provided a "uucp route" which they can use to send e-mail with. That is the thing with the `!'s in it. Unlike a domain address, a uucp route is not really an address. If you send your e-mail to bill@twwells.com, somewhere there is a program that figures out how to get it from you to me; but a uucp route is just a series of instructions for how to get the mail from one place to another. The uucp route in my signature is the text: { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill And it tells you: figure out how to get mail to any of the systems "uunet", "novavax", "ankh", or "sunvice"; if you can do that, put the route from you to one of those systems together with the stuff from the `!' on. That will be a route from you to me. For example, if you wanted to use the uucp route information (you shouldn't have to; your system probably deals with domain addresses all right), here's what you might do. You'd ask someone local how to route to one of the systems in my route; he might say: try "udel!cbmvax!uunet" (I'm not sure that is right, though it might work). You'd then tack that onto what follows the first `!', making it "udel!cbmvax!uunet!twwells!bill". There are other kinds of information in signatures, and lots of other ways to get things from here to there, but those two cover most of the cases. Now, if the person did not provide a signature, you still might be able to find an e-mail address for him. At the top of each message is a "header" which contains a number of lines that might have an address. Here is the header that came with your message: Path: twwells!novavax!uflorida!gatech!udel!udccvax1!eileen From: eileen@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Eileen M Garland) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: questions Message-ID: <4051@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> Date: 27 Jul 89 21:07:33 GMT Distribution: usa Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 13 Note the second line, the "From:" line. That line has a domain address in it: "eileen@vax1.acs.udel.EDU". If I wanted to send you e-mail, that is where I'd send it. If the headers contained a "Reply-To:" line, that would be the best bet, with the "From:" line the second best. If none of the addresses work, you could try the "Path:" line (in messages in news anyway); it may be a uucp route that goes where you want it. though it often goes the long way 'round. So, if I originally sent to "eileen@vax1.acs.udel.EDU" and got a bounce message, I might try sending to "novavax!uflorida!gatech!udel!udccvax1!eileen". Who knows, it might even work! Determining your own address depends. If your site has a domain name it is "your-name@domain-name". Other cases are more painful; ask your system administrator. You might want to subscribe to any of the comp.mail newsgroups: comp.mail.elm Discussion and fixes for ELM mail system. comp.mail.headers Gatewayed from the ARPA header-people list. comp.mail.maps Various maps, including UUCP maps. (Moderated) comp.mail.mh The UCI version of the Rand Message Handling system. comp.mail.misc General discussions about computer mail. comp.mail.multi-media Multimedia Mail. comp.mail.mush The Mail User's Shell (MUSH). comp.mail.sendmail Configuring and using the BSD sendmail agent. comp.mail.uucp Mail in the uucp network environment. : Is there documentation available anywhere (and if so, please explain : in detail how I can get it) that gives a good introduction to News? : Usenet? If you haven't been given any documentation by whoever gave you an account on the system, you should ask him for some. However, there are also a number of documents that are posted periodically in news.announce.newusers; you should subscribe to that newsgroup and read those messages when they come around. Also, you should look into getting one of the "Nutshell Handbooks". These are a series of *very* useful books, the one I have in mind is called _Using uucp and Usenet_. You can reach them by calling 1-800-338-NUTS or by sending e-mail (if you can :-) to uunet!ora!nuts. : (Are they the same thing?) What are all these other nets : I see mentioned when I read the News? Help! I'm seriously confused. No doubt "Usenet" has a precise definition somewhere but it tends to get used rather vaguely to mean the collection of systems through which the news flows. However, Usenet isn't really a network all by itself; instead, it exists on top of other networks. In other words, each site has some software which is able to send and receive news and does so through whatever network facilities are available on that system. There are lots and lots of networks, and to make life confusing, many systems are on more than one network. There is the uucp network, the Internet, BITNET, etc.; some of these networks are distinguished by the kind of protocol connecting the systems together (uucp, Internet); others are distinguished by administrative control (though they tend to have a common protocol as well), e.g. BITNET. : How can an individual not attached to a university tap into this : network? Lots and lots of ways. You need two things: a site which is willing to let you connect and the appropriate computer hardware and software. Many universities are willing to let outsiders connect through their machines; so also are many other sites. There are many ways to find those sites, most of which amount to just asking around. There are many sites that advertise "public access", meaning that you can call them up to send and receive mail, and to read the news; the problems with these are that they are often hard to get to (people like those systems!) and you might have to pay long distance charges as well. A list of these is posted occasionally, I think on comp.misc. There are also many sites that you can pay for net access. Some, like uunet, only take uucp connections; others, like Portal, will let you do interactive access. I don't know about any of these other than uunet, which I use. As for the hardware, you need a computer and a modem, most any kind will do; of course, the faster each is the happier you'll be. :-) For software, this depends. If you want to do interactive access, most any communications program will do; go to any computer store and be inundated. If you want to do uucp, you need that program (which comes with Unix), or a clone (there are a few PD clones of uucp, some of which even run on a PC running MS-DOS and machines of similar class). : I've been fumbling my way through this News (which I love) for a couple of : months now, but still have only a rudimentary idea of what I'm doing. : Does everyone have this much trouble or is there something wrong with me? It is not you. Or at least not wholly. It really helps to have a more than a bit of computer background when trying to understand the net. But even for the computer knowledgeable, the net can be difficult to understand. The net is a *big* place. And it never stops growing and changing. --- Bill { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill bill@twwells.com