Internet Exploration -I-

Network Services

(original: hawaii) WWW servers, gophers, WAISes, archie, and CERN

People

There are many internet services set up for tracking down PEOPLE:

USENET-addresses from News
Domain organizations

Gopher

Gopher is a service that allows users to view and obtain all sorts of files, programs, and software. You can select the items you want from a menu.

The music and lyrics archives holds lyrics, music, and guitar tablatures to hundreds of artists.
The Boombox Gopher Server at the University of Minnesota contains all sorts of utility programs for email and network services.
You can also access the U of M's main Gopher, get up-to-date computer information, tech specs, and prices, or access any other Gopher site in the world.
The Notre Dame Gopher also has a large library of current computer and networking information, as well as a list of searchable electronic phone books.
The Macintosh archives at Stanford contain megabytes of public domain or shareware Mac programs, Mac-compatible artwork, and information.
The Macintosh archives at the University of Michigan also contain megabytes of public domain or shareware Mac programs, Mac-compatible artwork, and information. Here's an experimental hypertext interface to that archive.
"Envirogopher" contains all sorts of environmental information, with current environmental issues, media, networks, and politics.
Multimedia sound and image archives, as well as an architectural image archive, exist at Johns Hopkins and the U. of Michigan.
Here's a warehouse of sounds from a Gopher at MIT.
The National Computing Board of Singapore has its own Gopher, with a Usenet news feed, a list of libraries, and information about Singapore's nation-wide information technology plan.
The InterNIC Gopher contains information about network protocols, hosts, and other information for network users, as well as information about...information.
The Apple Higher Education Gopher holds technical notes and information, as well as information and newsletters concering higher education and (Apple) computing. Marketing statistics should also be obtainable there.
The UN Gopher contains information about the United Nations, daily press releases, and more.
Connect to the Library of Congress and get library, legislative, or copyright information.
The Earth Sciences Gopher at the U. of Texas contains many network resources and information on geology and all aspects of earth sciences.
The Eurogopher Subject Tree allows you to browse hundreds of gophers and services by subject.

Veronica

Veronica allows you to search all of the Gopher sites in the world. Just enter a word or words, and all sorts of directories, programs, and articles with those words in them will show up in a menu for you to browse.

You can search places using the Veronica at CNIDR. See their main Veronica menu, search gopher files, or search gopher directories.
...or search places using the Veronica at NYSERnet. See their main Veronica menu, search gopher files, or search gopher directories.
...or search places using the Veronica at UNR. See their main Veronica menu, search gopher files, or search gopher directories.
...or search places at the University of Pisa. Search gopher files, or search gopher directories.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It allows you to transfer documents and programs from all over the place.

You can FTP to any anonymous site in the world using this hypertext interface.
Apple Computer's FTP archives contain full Macintosh operating system software packages, up to version 7.0.1, and Apple utility programs.
The X Contribution archives at MIT contain megabytes of public domain or shareware graphic program that will run on UNIX computers running the graphical user interface, X.
The CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) archive contains items relating to computer security, warnings and announcements, security and network utility programs, and papers on viruses and computer security.
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) archive contains underground computer newsletters and information on civil liberties, law, information, and government and privacy issues.
Here you can get all sorts of Internet information, statistics, and maps.

Telnet

Telnet allows you to remotely log in to other computers and can give one access to databases and many information services.

You can search the full ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database from 1966 at this spot at Auburn University. Once you connect, tab to APPLICATION and enter 01. To quit, enter STOP.
This hytelnet (hypertelnet) interface will allow you to log in remotely to hundreds of world-wide libraries, campus-wide information services, or other information services.

News, Publications, and Electronic Texts

These sites primarily offer news-related services or on-line publications.

Here's a list of on-line national newsletters and journals through Gopher.
Here's the Chronicle of Higher Education Gopher, which offers up-to-date higher ed. info and on-line versions of the newsletter.
This is a list of Usenet (the world-wide news network) FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) files. They contain gold mines of information! You can also browse a hypertext Usenet interface.
A large list of electronic text resources exists within the Wiretap Archives.
Yet another large collection of books, magazines, newspapers, and reference works can be found at the U. of Minnesota.
This Michigan archive contains alternative texts, underground publications, radical political texts, electronic magazines, and more.
You can listen to past programs at the Internet Talk Radio/Town Hall archive. Or browse a ftp archive of past talk radio programs.
Here's a list of the current Billboard charts.
Here's a list of this week's Nielsen ratings.

Government, Law and Legal Information

These sites offer legal documents, government database access, or other legislature-related information.

Here's a Gopher site at Notre Dame which holds Supreme Court Rulings.
Another place there has Clinton administration information...
...or get census data from the University of Michigan.
Through this Gopher, you can connect to the Federal Information Exchange.
At the Legal Information Institute at Cornell, you can get the Copyright Act, patent law, Supreme Court decisions, or the Constitution. And much more!
The Wiretap Gopher Archives hold government papers, Clinton's press releases and daily schedules, and much more.
You can also get budgetary information and more at the U. of North Carolina Gopher.

Weather Services

Connected to these places, you can get satellite maps, movies, and national forecasts updated hourly.

You can get to US Weather Forecasts at the U. of Minnesota.
This experimental Gopher at Michigan also contains forecasts, satellite images, and pointers to other weather information.
The U. of Illinois Weather Archive contains up-to-date satellite pictures and weather surface maps from nearly every region of the globe.
View satellite and US surface map movies of the last 48 hours or view customizable surface maps at Michigan State University.
Here are lists of weather maps for the USA (temp/press chars, and geographically ordered list) and Europe. Try the MSU/UCG server, especially their current weather maps and movies (in particular a movie of satellite images over the last 48 hours). There is another weather/environment server in australia (ie.Africa,Europe&Atlantic, Australia, AP, AP.hires, CoralSea, Queensland, SE-Australia, W-Australia latest pass) Actual European images are available as:
- Large Infrared view (updated semidaily)
- Large Visible view (also see the sunsci html map)
- tiny "visible" view
- tiny "infrared" view
Press here for the current EPFL weather station report. Other "environment"-links:
- earthquake data.
- DOE Climate data.
- Daily Summary of Solar Activity

Searchable Services

Using these services, you can enter a word or words and have a database search for information.

You can search a Geographic Name Server by city or ZIP code...
...search for any US area code...
...search Webster's Dictionary or Thesaurus...
...search the Dictionary of Computing, the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the Jargon Dictionary, Usenet Language List, and the Acronym File through this dictionary Gopher...
...search for any information in the CIA World Factbook...
...search through a national database of job descriptions and resumés at the Career Center Online Gopher...
...or browse through a list of electronic phone books on the network.
You can search the Unified Computer Science Index for reports and technical notes.
This is ArchiePlex, a hypertext archie interface, information about ArchiePlex, and here's the NCSA archie interface. Archie will allow you to search FTP sites for programs or files by specifying a word or words. Here's a list of other hypertext Archie interfaces.
This WAIS (Wide-Area Information Service) interface will let you search thousands of files and articles on the networks for what you want.
Search a netfind service to find a user on the Internet. Here's a server at the University of Colorado. Here's a list of other netfind and directory servers through hytelnet.

Hypermedia Services

These services are specific to the World-Wide Web and usually contain multimedia information.

Explore a hypermedia world map interface at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
Here's the hypertext Vatican Library Exhibit at the Library of Congress.
Learn a bit about art history and architecture at the Australian National University.
Learn about the Civil War and the photographer Matthew Brady at this hypermedia exhibit.
Here's the "official" list of World-Wide Web hypertext servers.
Or just zip to a comprehensive list of all known Web servers and go for it!
The Mosaic Home Page at the U. of Indiana is always a good place to start hunting.
Find out what's new on the Web.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Get your biorhythm at UCLA...
...or a tarot card reading...
...or see what happened today in history.

Other Lists of Services

Lists of network services that others have made exist in a few places:

Information Services by Subject, a hypertext file listing all sorts of services sorted by subject, and
Data Sources by Service, another hypertext file sorting network services by the type of program you use to access them.
You can search the Whole Internet Resource Catalog to find hundreds of other resources on the Internet.
Here's a hypertext version of Scott Yanoff's Internet Services List.
Another overview of services by subject can be found at this UK site.