INTERNET BASICS

What is internet?

Domain Name System (DNS)

Protocols:

telnet (terminal emulation protocol)

ftp (file transfer protocol)

mail (e-mail)

trn, rn,nn, tin, etc. (news readers to access usenet news)

FTP (some very useful commands):

open <address>

close

bye

cd <directory>(change directory)

pwd (present working directory)

cd .. (move one level above pwd)

lcd (change local directory.. "local" is the PC you are working on)

! (revert control to PC, i.e., move temporarily back to the PC you are working on without terminating the ftp connection)

exit (to move back into ftp from the PC you are working on. This can be used only when you have got into local through "!" described above)

binary set the mode to binary, for downloading a file.

hash (to display hash marks while the file is being downloaded. Very useful, specially when downloading large files.)

get <filename> to download a file with the name "filename"

put <filename> to upload a file.

mget list of files (to download more than one file. You may use the wildcard character "*". On unix systems, you can also use "?" to match any character.)

get <filename> |less (to view a text file while still in ftp mode. a space after filename is required, and there should be no space between | and less.)

Searching for information on the internet:

gopher

archie

wais

veronica

World Wide Web:

A web of documents linked together with the use of hypertext as a navigation system.

Graphical User Interfaces:

Mosaic

Netscape

Character-based GUI:

lynx

cello

Updated September 4, 1997 by Jagdish S. Gangolly