Notice: This file is archived for historical purposes only and is not being updated. Please see the index for updates.
Internet Tools Summary
by John December (john@december.com)
Copyright © 1992-1997 December Communications, Inc..
You may link to this or use this document
for any educational, personal, or non-profit purpose.
I ask that you do not copy this document to another
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For-profit distribution or re-distribution of any kind requires permission.
Provided "as is" without expressed or implied warranty.
- PURPOSE
- The purpose of this document is to list tools available on the Internet that are used for Network Information Retrieval (NIR), Computer-Mediated Interaction (CMI), and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). This is not meant to be a strict categorization or an exhaustive list, rather a reference catalog. I certainly would welcome comments and suggestions.
- AUDIENCE
- those getting started in understanding what you can do on the Internet in NIR and CMC; for those experienced, it collects and summarizes sources of information.
- ASSUMPTION
- You have access to and know how to use the finger, ftp, gopher, http, telnet, email, or Usenet newsgroups.
- REFERENCES
- The references listed at the end of this document are very useful guides to these tools.
- ACTION
- The Action notation that I had previously described in this document is in the file internet-tools.tax.
- NOTES
-
- Respect your access privileges to these tools.
- This information changes; Additions/comments welcome.
- You can view information on how to use this hypertext guide.
- For demo purposes, I have used Unix commands; certainly Unix is not the only operating system required for these tools and forums. Apologies to those who don't have Unix.
- On the classification (NIR v. CMC): some tools could be used for either, such as telnet and email. I've placed them in what I feel are "principal use" categories, e.g., telnet is used mostly for NIR, and email is commonly used for CMC (although both have applications in the other category).
- Many of these tools have applicability off the Internet. Usenet, for example, is not confined to the Internet, and Internet email (and thus LISTSERV files) can be exchanged with communication systems off the Internet (BITNET, fidonet, commercial services.) So this list is not Internet (only) tools, but tools that can be used on the Internet.