Using Internet Connectivity
                                    
    A brief tutorial on Internet features for users of the TQMBBS and
                                 others.
                                    
                       D. L. Kimbler, Ph.D., P.E.
                     Dept of Industrial Engineering
                           Clemson University
                                    

     The development of the file server for TQMBBS files at
Clemson University was intended to serve TQMBBS users with
Internet connections, as well as make the files more widely
available.  Since the service began, there have been several
inquiries about terms such as FTP and Gopher.  I suspect there
are other issues as well, and I will try to answer some of the
questions briefly in this short article.  The major issues seem
to be the sometimes arcane-looking jargon for Internet
connections and Internet connectivity itself.

Connecting from an Internet Host:
     If you are already on Internet, then connectivity is not an
issue for you.  You might, however, be new to Internet or at
least new to some of these terms.  You can skip over the next
section, unless you are considering changing how you connect to
Internet.

Connecting from an off-Internet Computer:
     First, ask yourself if an Internet connection is better than
dialing in to TQMBBS.  If your call to TQMBBS is not a local
call, you might be able to connect less expensively some other
way.  If you are interested in features found on Internet but not
on BBS systems, you might want to explore getting Internet
service.  While I find the Internet highly useful, it is not for
everybody.  Choices of connections should be made based on
economy and access to information.
     If you are considering Internet access, you have a lot of
options.  The simplest ones are the existing on-line services. 
Delphi has Internet service which costs $3 per month in addition
to the basic service fee.  This gives you access to Gopher, FTP,
and Usenet.  (These are described below.)  If you already have
Delphi, Internet connection is a matter of registering for
Internet service.  America Online has announced that Internet
services will be made available this year.  These include FTP and
Usenet, at least, and Gopher should come very shortly. 
Compuserve has just announced the coming availability of Internet
services, initially Telnet and FTP.  Right now, only Delphi has
complete access, but the others should follow quickly.  If you
already have one of these services, the simplest thing for you to
do (and probably the most economical) is to just wait until their
Internet access is available.
     If you do not have an on-line service, you can connect to
Internet by modem through one of the Internet service providers. 
This typically involves getting software that will interface your
computer software to the Internet, and then subscribing to the
service.  I don't use this method, but from what I read on the
Internet quite a few folks do this successfully.  While you can
do this very cheaply with public domain software and finding the
minimum price service, this is not recommended unless you are
pretty knowledgable in PC's and networking or have a friend who
is and owes you a big favor.  Here is a list of contact points
for Internet service providers taken from the ads in the May 1994
issue of Internet World:
     
     Internet-in-a-Box from SPRY, email to info@ibox.com or call
     (800) 777-9638.

     WinGopher, NOTIS Systems, email to wingopher@notis.com or
     call (800) 55- NOTIS.  

     WorldLink from InterCon, email to info@intercon.com or call
     (800) INTRCON.  Software and service.

     AlterNet from UUNET Technologies, email to 
     alter-net@uunet.uu.net pr call (800) 258-4026. 

     The World from Software Tool and Die, email to
     info@world.std.com or call (617)739-0202. 

I have not used these services, and have only used Delphi enough
to insure that its Internet connections worked.  I am not
endorsing them, just making the information available.  As people
say on the Internet, "Your mileage may vary."

Why Telnet?
     Telnet is an old protocol for connecting terminals to remote
computers.  It is a two-way communication system in which you
remotely execute commands on and interact with the host computer. 
For pure information access, it is not used much.  The client-
server model, where the server program runs on a host computer
and the client software runs on yours has pretty much replaced it
except when there is need to actually execute programs on the
host.  For our purposes, we will ignore it.

Why FTP?
     FTP stands for file transfer protocol.  It is a means of
connecting to another computer for the sole purpose of
transferring files between it and your computer.  If you use FTP
from client software, such as Delphi, you select FTP and the
client asks you to enter the name of the host computer.  You then
provide your user name (usually "anonymous") and your password
(usually your Internet email address) and you are connected.  You
can view file directories, move files there, or from there to
your computer, within the limits established by the server for
anonymous users.  Quite a bit of software and other files are
available by anonymous FTP.  This is one of the modes of using
deming.eng.clemson.edu.
     Once you are logged in to deming (or some other host) it
simply waits for you to enter a command.  Here is a typical
dialog ("deming%" is the prompt provided by the remote system):
     deming%pwd
     /pub
     deming%dir
     file1
     file2
     file3
     deming%binary
     Binary transfer mode selected
     deming%get file1
     File file1 transferred...
     deming%bye
The first command, pwd, stands for print working directory.  If
you are not in the proper directory, the command cd followed by
the directory name, as in "cd /pub/tqmbbs", would change to the
one you specify.  The command dir requests a directory listing. 
The response is actually longer than what is above; it contains
subdirectories within the working directory, file sizes, and
access modes (who has read and write access).  A similar command
to display files without the extras is ls.  Having found that the
file you want, file1, is there, you either transfer it
immediately if it is a text file, or change to binary mode if it
is a *.zip or some other binary file.  If you transfer a binary
file in ASCII mode, you get garbage.  The get command is the one
that retrieves the file.  Again, there is more dialog from the
host, depending on the software.  It might simply be more
verbose, or it might give you the data transfer rate as it
transfers.  When the prompt comes back, the file has been
transferred.  The command bye terminates the session and
connection.  The command help can be entered at the prompt at any
time for a list of commands that the server software recognizes.
     The big advantage of FTP is that it can transfer files very
quickly, without requiring any kind of coding (such as uuencode
and uudecode).  The big disadvantage is that, except for some
pretty sophisticated systems, you cannot view the file before you
transfer it.  That is why most anonymous FTP sites have a readme,
index, or both in each directory.  You retrieve it, read it at
you leisure without using network resources, and then go back and
get the files you want.

Why Gopher?
     Gopher originated at University of Minnesota not long ago as
part of a project to improve Internet access.  It has grown and
is still growing at an amazing rate.  Access to Gopher requires a
Gopher client, which is usually on your home computer, but can
also be on your online system (this is what Delphi does) or at a
Telnet connection.  What you see with Gopher is a menu of file
descriptions and connections to other systems.  Selecting a file
retrieves it; selecting a connection or directory moves to it. 
Gopher is extremely simple to use.  Gopher clients will have
either a menu option to connect to a different Gopher, or a
bookmark option to define a Gopher connection.  
     Connecting to deming would involve identifying a new Gopher
as deming.eng.clemson.edu at the menu prompt.  Or, if defining a
bookmark item, enter the name as whatever you want to call it,
Type=1, Port=70, Host=deming.eng.clemson.edu.  Having done this,
you can now access it by selecting the bookmark item with the
name you gave it.
     Gopher could very well become the most common mode of access
to information on the Internet.  Its great advantage is
simplicity.  Its disadvantage is that the menus are text
oriented.  While graphics files (gif, for example) can be
retrieved,  they cannot be mixed with the text and viewed on the
fly.

What about WWW?
     WWW stands for world-wide-web.  This is a hypertext model of
network communication, in which a www menu item might be another
file on the same host, a directory on a different host, a gopher
server, a script of commands, etc.  From the user's point of
view, they all look the same and have the same user interface. 
This is a powerful way of organizing a fantastic amount of
information that can easily span different computers as well as
continents.  Add the ability to include sound and graphic data
and the result is a very powerful and flexible information
system.  WWW connections are made according to a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) which identifies the connection point and the kind
of connections.  The URL for the TQMBBS files on the Internet, a
simple implementation of this kind of server, is
http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/
     
Where to Find Out More
     There are quite a few new books available covering these and
other topics on Internet use.  Two good ones are available in the
TQMBBS.  GUIDES.ZIP contains Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. 
ZEN10.ZIP contains Zen and the Art of Internet.  Both of these
provide general information about modes of use on the Internet
and the resources to be found there.  The Internet Navigator,
published by John Wiley, is an Internet book for dial-up users,
according to its advertising.
     You can find out a lot about the Internet by selective
participation in Usenet news groups and other discussion groups. 
There you will find documents such as FAQ (frequently asked
questions and their answers) and points to other sources of
information.  One of the keys to Internet use is getting yourself
connected, obviously.  Another is the realization that this
system was developed primarily by its original users.  The
implication of this is that, while much is not obviously
documented, a wealth of information is available.  Finding it can
be fun, and help is always available on the Internet.