HND CSYS1051


Gopher
Telnet
MUDs
Web Searchers
Archie
Gopher
Useful Sites: Some of the older Internet Services are still supported and are very useful tools. One of these is Gopher.

When you are not exactly sure what you are looking for on the Net or you want to research a particular topic of interest, sometimes browsing web sites is not accurate enough.  The web site author may have a lot of unrelated links which do not meet your requirement.  Then a gopher server, serves information in an orderly fashion, in topic order, using an outline format of menus and sub menus.  With Gopher you can follow logically related trails.

To access a gopher server, replace the browser location URL with  Gopher://gopher.well.com . Browse the site to see what is available.  Gopher menus can be saved, copied, printed, or bookmark for future visits.

The URL provides a map of the path taken to get to the target information. With each new link you are extending the path.  Try a couple of Gopher sites  gopher://wx.atmos.uiuc.edu/  for weather maps and  gopher://ashpool.micro.umn.edu/  the University of Minnesota archive.

Another Gopher use would be to locate individuals who have used the Web and can be used with search tools.  Go to URL gopher://gopher.micro.umn.edu , select phone books and try a search.


Telnet
Telnet allows you to log in to other computers on the Net.  The host presents you with possibly a text based menu for you to interact with them.  You can Telnet to text based on-line services such as WELL and if you have a Unix account to another computer you can use Telnet to login and run any programme available on the host machine.  This is often referred to as terminal emulation because your computer is acting as if it is directly connected to the host computer.  Terminal emulation programmes such as PROCOMM PLUS require a dial up connection whereas Telnet connects via the Internet. useful links:  tips(Hytelnet) how to use telnet

MUDS & MOOS
MUDS are (Multiple-User-Dimensions), real-time, interactive role-playing games.  Business games, with teams of players running organisations in a competitive environment are often used in training management.

MOOS are object-oriented version, in which the users can create their own objects eg. features of the landscape. Other varients of MUDs are MUCKs, MUSHes and MUSEs.

Some of the text based games are meeting places for group fantasies.

Lots of information on MUDs and MOOs is contained on http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/iath/treport/mud.html
http://www.cam.ac.uk/Hytelnet/index.html

If you would like to play a game, read the FAQ files and try  http://www.oise.on.ca/~jnolan/mud.html

TooMuSH (multi user game)  telnet://192.33.116.108:7070

Web searchers
Apart from recognised search engines such  Yahoo, other search engines exist such as:

 
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