******** ************************************************** * * * * * The independent guide to BITNET * * * * * * November, 1988 * * * * * * Volume 3, Number 5 * ******** * * * * *** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven * * ** * Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben; * * Und aller-muemsige Burggoven * * * Die Mohmen Raeth' ausgraben. * * * * ****** * Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch! * * * Die Zaehne knirschen,Krallen-Kratzen! * * * Bewahr' vor Jubjub-Vogel vor * * Frumioesen Banderschnaetzchen! * ******** * * * * Er griff sein vorpals Schwertchen zu, * * * Er suchte lang das manchsam' Ding; * * * Dann, stehend unten Tumtum Baum, * * * Er an-zu-denken-fing. * * * * ******** * Als stand er tief in Andacht auf, * * Des Jammerwochen's Augen-feuer * *** * Durch tulgen Wald mit wiffek kam * * * * Ein burbelnd ungeheuer! * * * * * * * * Eins Zwei! Eins Zwei! Und durch und durch * *** * Sein vorpals Schwert zerschnifer-schnueck * * Da blieb es todt! Er, Kopf in Hand, * ****** * Gelaeunfig zog zurueck. * * * * * * Und schlugst Du ja den Jammerwoch? * * * Umarme mich, mein Boehm'sches Kind! * **** * O Freuden-Tag! O Halloo-Schlag! * * Er chortelt froh-gesinnt. * * * * * * Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven * ****** * Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben; * * * Und aller muemsige Burggoven * * * Die mohmen Raeth' ausgraben. * * * ******** * * * * * * * * * * * **** ************************************************** 1 * * * * * ** * * ** ** * * * * * * *** ***** * * * * *** **** ***** **** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***** * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * **** * * * *** * * * * * ****** ****** Christopher Condon Editor CONDON @ YALEVM Timothy Stephen Associate Editor STEPHEN @ RPICICGE Craig White Associate Editor CWHITE @ UA1VM June Genis Contributing Editor GA.JRG @ STANFORD David Hibler Contributing Editor ENGL0333 @ UNLVM Henry Mensch Contributing Editor HENRY @ MITVMA Deba Patnaik Contributing Editor DEBA @ UMDC Gerry Santoro Contributing Editor GMS @ PSUVM Marc Shannon Helpdesk Editor HELPDESK @ DRYCAS Glen Overby Technical Assistant NCOVERBY @ NDSUVAX Gary Moss Point of View MOSS @ YALEVM ********************* Contents - Issue 27 ********************* EDITORIAL PAGE_________________________________________________ Bitnotes .................................................... 1 The BITNET/CSNET Merger ..................................... 4 FEATURES_______________________________________________________ The National Science Foundation Server ...................... 5 DargonZine .................................................. 7 Finger ...................................................... 8 DEPARTMENTS____________________________________________________ Headlines ................................................... 9 Helpdesk ................................................... 12 Policies ................................................... 16 * For information on subscribing to NetMonth, submitting * * articles, sending letters, and printing this file, see * * the "Policies" section on the last pages of this issue. * ----------------------------------------- 1 Page 1 ********* * * Bitnotes * * * * by Christopher Condon * * * * Yale University * * * * BITLIB@YALEVM ********* "The End Becomes the Means" ------- Often when I am faced with a problem it helps to take a step back and look at it from the outside. Sometimes the annoying little glitch I am focusing on is merely a symptom of a serious, gigantic glitch. While it is no fun finding these things out, I would rather use my resources fixing problems instead of symptoms. I've started to wonder if the latest ruckus about BITNET user directories doesn't fall into the "annoying" category. Our problem (or so it appears) is that there are too many diverse, overlapping, and inconsistent servers filling this function in the network. While there have been a number of discussions about what could be done to rectify this situation, no real progress has been made. There remain obstacles and arguments about privacy, data formats, user interfaces... the list goes on. Now, take a step back. Remove yourself from the thick of the situation and your own preferences on how the problem should be solved. To the impartial observer, this user directory discussion provides a unique opportunity to watch how weaknesses are uncovered, defined, and eventually addressed in BITNET. If you recall, our network is (in spirit) a cooperative one. While each node pays dues in order to receive technical services (routing tables, etc.) from the BITNIC, information services (LISTSERV, COMSERVE, NetMonth) are provided on a voluntary basis. Most change is brought about not by work groups or committees, but by individuals (for whatever reason). Eric Thomas took it upon himself to improve the original BITNIC LISTSERV and propagate his version throughout the network. Jeff Kell wrote RELAY and did much the same thing. While these people received (and are receiving) assistance from others in the network to continue their efforts, the impetus for change 1 Page 2 an individual one. Or rather, the effort in BITNET change is a group one, where the momentum behind that change, the groundwork, often comes from a single person. BITNET began as an experiment in academic networking. Its purpose was not so much to provide academic computing services as to PROVE that they could be proviced. BITNET was an end in itself. As the network has grown, this emphasis has changed (and rightly so). The End is now to provide academic communications services, and BITNET has become the Means. My question is this: Is the current organizational structure of BITNET adequate for providing technical and information services in a timely and consistent manner? Put a different way: Has BITNET outgrown its volunteer ethic? Most BITNET information standards are, in fact, "de facto" standards. They become accepted because they are so widespread or because the "competition" is nonexistent, or because that individual behind the service has a heck of a lot of impetus. There is nothing that says that you must use LISTSERV to maintain your mailing list. You can write your own server or devise your own method if you like. But if the tools are there, and they are widespread, and the people know how to use them, why bother? Hence, the "standard". Somewhere in my resume it states that BITNET SERVERS is the "official" list of servers and services in the network. Of course, there isn't any other list, there hasn't been any other list, so it must be the "standard". Where does the Network Information Center fit in all of this? The BITNIC staff provides a fine level of support given its overworked and understaffed state. Their mandate (as I interpret it) it to provide bare-bones basic information and technical services to keep the network running. The people there *can't* do much more than that given their current funding. The bells and whistles (LISTSERV, NetMonth) are provided, run, and supported by outside sources. Our current dilemma is user directory servers. I have no illusions that the committees or discussion groups are going to design and implement a solution to this problem. Rather, some ambitious soul is going to sit down, think the problem through, write a server or a system, and start spreading it through the network. Whether or not his or her solution is the best possible one is irrelevant. It will become popular and therefore "standard". 1 Page 3 Question: Is this method of providing services adequate for a network of BITNET's size? I think not. As always, I welcome your thoughts on this topic. Is the BITNET organization basicly inadequate for providing the services it should? Are we just getting what we pay for? Or is Chris just in a bad mood today? Virtually, Chris Condon@YALEVM 1 Page 4 ********* * * The Proosed BITNET/CSNET Merger * * * * by Jim Conklin * * * * BITNET Network Information Center * * * * CONKLIN@BITNIC ********* I notice that some discussion of the proposed BITNET/CSnet merger has transpired while I've been conference-hopping. Without trying to familiarize myself with all that's been said, let me confirm that the BITNET Board of Trustees unanimously agreed in principle to the merger of BITNET with CSnet and voted to RECOMMEND to the BITNET membership that the Board be authorized to proceed with the merger. The CSnet Executive Committee has made a similar recommendation to UCAR, which manages CSnet. The BITNET Board will prepare a statement outlining its understanding of the issues involved in the proposed merger, together with its recommendation, and will conduct a VOTE of the BITNET members, with the members' BITNET Institutional Representatives casting the votes for their respective institutions. Only if that vote is favorable to the merger will the BITNET Board continue to pursue it. (Favorable action by UCAR is, of course, also necessary.) The Board hopes to conduct this vote within the next few weeks. Since the report by Gillespie, Faulkner, and Associates (the consultants hired by BITNET and CSnet to study the issues involved) is more than a hundred pages long, it will not be practical to distribute it in full to the membership. The intent of the Board is to capture the essence of the report in the material it distributes to the membership in connection with the vote on the merger. My present understanding of the consultants' recommendation is that the combined network is expected to provide all services now included in the BITNET and in the CSnet offerings, for several years. The proposed costs to universities for the various services replicate the present costs, with some changes for the industrial members proposed, to make the industrial memberships closely resemble those for the present CSnet. A transition team chosen by the two networks will generate new bylaws and a more detailed plan for the merger, if the two networks approve the recommendation to merge. * Note: Jim Conklin is Director of the BITNIC 1 Page 5 ********* * * The National Science Foundation Server * * * * from the documentation * * * * The National Science Foundation * * * * INFO@NSF ********* The National Science Foundation information server (INFO@NSF) is a mail-based service. That is, it accepts commands and sends information to you via electronic mail. To send a request, your mail does not need a subject field. The text of your message must be in a special format, however, such as: REQUEST: INFO TOPIC: HELP REQUEST: END This request asks for the document "HELP" from the "request" collection "INFO". Your message must have a "REQUEST" line, to specify the request collection, and one or more "TOPIC:" lines to specify documents from the collection. The optional statement "REQUEST: END" terminates your specification. Any subsequent text in the message is ignored by the Info Server. You may specify a limit, in lines or bytes, to the maximum size of document that you wish to have sent in a single message. For example: LINE-LIMIT: 1000 or BYTE-LIMIT: 75K The Info Server will break the documents at exactly the specified number of lines, or at the line preceeding the specified number of bytes. The minimum limit is 2000 lines or 12000 bytes. You may use the form "75000" or "75K" in either limit, but NOT "75,000". The limit affects only lines up to the next REQUEST: line. You may combine different requests in the same message, and use any combination of upper- and lower-case letters in your text. You may also include or omit spaces and tabs, use any number of REQUEST and TOPIC lines, and omit "REQUEST: END". For example: 1 Page 6 REQUEST: INFO BYTE-LIMIT: 22000 TOPIC: HELP (byte limit in effect) REQUEST: FORMS TOPIC: REVIEWS (byte limit not in effect) If you include "REQUEST: END", the INFO SERVER will ignore whatever follows in your message. If you include "REQUEST: ATTENTION", the INFO SERVER will ignore whatever follows and deliver your entire message to POSTMAST@NSF. You are encouraged to suggest additional documents you would like to have available from the NSF Info Server. Mail suggestions to POSTMANST@NSF. REQUEST collections currently available: REQUEST: INFO Information on using the Info-Server. REQUEST: FORMS Templates and forms. REQUEST: GRAD-FEL Graduate Fellowship Program files. REQUEST: INT-SCIENG International Science and Engineering 1 Page 7 ********* * * DargonZine * * * * by John L. White * * * * Drexel University * * * * WHITE@DUVM ********* * Editor's note: As many of you know, FSFNet magazine ceaced publication a few months back. However, its continuing Dargon writing project survives in the form of DargonZine, edited by John L. White. To subscribe, send a reqeuest to him at WHITE@DUVM. The following is from the introduction to the first issue: Hello, readers! Here it is, the first issue of the "replacement" - or rather, continuation - of FSFNet. As the new Editor, I hope that DargonZine serves you all as well as my predecesor's magazine did. DargonZine is not really a replacement for FSFNet, but rather a vehicle for the continuation of the Dargon Project, which made up a substantial part of the material in FSFNet. DargonZine will not be publishing anything non-Dargon, but R. Allen Jervis (C78KCK@IRISHMVS) has consented to take up the slack and publish any non-Dargon SF or Fantasy that anyone out there would like to write and/or read. This first issue contains five stories, three from authors new to the project. The first is from Max Khaytsus, and continues his "Unlikely Partners" story, Part 1 of which was in FSFNET Vol11N2. The second story, "Runaway", is by our first new author Michelle Brothers. The first part of the story provides some background to the rest of the story, and the second part, which happens some 9 months later, happens shortly after Max's story ends - in fact, they cross to a minor extent. The third story is from another new author, John Sullivan. "Steel Souls" gives us a little insight into the character of Ittosai. It takes place between "Worthy of the Title" and "A Visit to Connall", which appeared in FSFNet Vol10N5 and Vol11N3 respectively, before Ittosai has become the Castellan of Connall. 1 Page 8 ********* * * Finger * * * * by Marty Hoag * * * * North Dakota State University * * * * INFO@NDSUVM1 ********* FINGER@NDSUVM1 is a user directory server for people trying to locate individuals at North Dakota State University. It accepts commands via interactive messages. Actually, it doesn't accept commands at all. There are no commands. All you do is send the server a message with the name (or part of the name) of the person you are looking for. One interesting feature is that the server also tells you when the person last logged on. In this example, I am searching for all the people with the name "Jones": VM/CMS: TELL FINGER AT NDSUVM Jones VAX/VMS: SEND FINGER@NDSUVM "Jones" The response would look like this: * Searching for Jones * on ND HECN Host VM1.NoDak.EDU (NDSUVM1 on BITNET) * --- Userid = MN034881 (Note 0=ZERO!) --- * SCOTT JONES MISC COMP.SCI. 839-1898 student * Last on 02:54 CST Sat 12/03/88 from U21LC785 * * --- Userid = MV008981 (Note 0=ZERO!) --- * Kimberly Jones MASC MACS 786-2301 student * Last on 20:16 CDT Thu 05/19/88 from N12LC54B * * Last logon information is checked for * the first 2 hits only. * * --- Userid = UD130919 (Note 0=ZERO!) --- * Kelly Jones UND Aviation 775-6221 student * * --- Userid = UD148677 --- * Scott E. Jones UND Mech. Engr. 777-8662 student * * Finger Command Complete. You do not need to specify wildcards. A search for "Hoa" would turn up both "Marty Hoag" and "Mary Whoah". 1 Page 9 ********* * * Headlines * * * * from Various Sources * * * * from Precarious Places * * * * Send them to BITLIB@YALEVM ********* * From Hank Nussbacher: At the 7th annual International Network workshop that was held in Jerusalem this past week, the representative from China announced that as of September 15, 1988, the United States had removed the Cocom restriction on computer equipment exports to China. This paves the way for connecting China to Bitnet (which had applied previously). * Announcing EARN Appointments (from Bitnews): David Jennings, EARN President, has announced the appointment of Frode Greisen as President and Michael Hebegen as Vice President of the European Academic and Research Network, officially effective February 1989. President-Elect Greisen (NEUFRODE@NEUVM1) is from the UNI-C Danish Computing Center for Reseach and Education. Vice President-Elect Hebgen ($02@DHDURZ1) is associated with the Universitaet Heidelberg. As Ex Officio Members of the BITNET Board of Trustees, both Greisen and Hebgen will also be accessed via the LISTSERV List BOARD-L@BITNIC. EARN, the European Academic and Research Network, is a computer network for academic and research institutions located in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Founded in 1984, EARN is linked to BITNET (USA) and NetNorth (CANADA) in North America, forming one topologically interconnected network. * BIOCSI Corrections: In out October issue we truncated the information about BIOSCI mailing lists for space reasons. As a result the information provided was somewhat inaccurate. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. In the following list you would subscribe using the Distribution List name to LISTSERV@IRLEARN: IRLEARN Dist. Long Address (for reference only) Address List and Topic BIONEWS $BIONEWS BIONEWS General announcements 1 Page 10 BIOMATRX $BIOMATR BIO-MATRIX Applications of computers to biological databases BIOTECH $BIOTECH BIOTECH Biotechnology Issues SOFT-CON SOFT$CON CONTRIBUTED-SOFTWARE Information on molecular biology programs contributed to the public domain EMBL-DB EMBL$DB EMBL-DATABANK Messages to and from the EMBL database staff BIOJOBS $BIOJOBS EMPLOYMENT Job opportunities GENBANKB $GENBANK GENBANK-BB Messages to and from the GenBank database staff GENE-EXP GENE$EXP GENE-EXPRESSION Scientific Interest Group GENE-ORG GENE$ORG GENOMIC-ORGANIZATION Scientific Interest Group METHODS $METHODS METHODS-AND-REAGENTS Requests for information and lab reagents MOL-EVOL MOL$EVOL MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION Scientific Interest Group ONCOGENE $ONCOGEN ONCOGENES Scientific Interest Group SOFT-COM SOFT$COM PC-COMMUNICATIONS Information on communications software SOFT-PC SOFT$PC PC-SOFTWARE Information on PC-software for scientists PIR-BB PIR$BB PIR Messages to and from the PIR database staff PLANT $PLANT PLANT-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY Scientific Interest Group PROTEINS $PROTEIN PROTEIN-ANALYSIS Scientific Interest Group RESEARCH $RESEARC RESEARCH-NEWS Research news of interest to the community SCI-RES SCI$RES SCIENCE-RESOURCES Information about funding agencies, etc. SWISSPRT $SWISSPR SWISS-PROT Messages to and from the SWISS-PROT database staff YEAST $YEAST YEAST-GENETICS Scientific Interest Group 1 Page 11 * Internet address changes: The following servers have changed their network addresses: NBSLIB@ICST-CMR.ARPA is now NBSLIB@CMR.ICST.NBS.GOV NETLIB@ANL-MCS.ARPA is now NETLIB@RESEARCH.ATT.COM * BITNIC Plans Move to Washington, D.C. (from Bitnews): The BITNIC will be moving to the new EDUCOM offices in Washington, D.C., over a period of several months starting January, 1989. The present BITNIC computer will remain in Princeton until arrangements are complete for a replacement system in Washington. Some staff members will remain in Princeton until at least April 1989, possibly longer, with other staff locating in Washington in early January -- all new staff will be established in the Washington office. Every effort will be made to ensure constant and continuous service to the BITNET and its membership. * Ozone Newsletter: The Ozone newsletter has been expanded to cover any subject about the environment. The name of the newsletter has also been changed to reflect this, and it is now called: BioSphere Newsletter. To subscribe, you must still send the following command to LISTSERV@ICNUCEVM: SUB OZONE your_full_name. The OZONE mailing list is known as "Save Nature", and subscribers to that mailing list also receive BioSphere Newsletter. 1 Page 12 ********* * * Helpdesk - a Question and Answer column * * * * by Marc Shannon * * * * Carnegie-Mellon University * * * * Send your questions to HELPDESK@DRYCAS ********* "Hello? This is the United States calling? Are we reaching?" That's the way it has seemed to be for poor, lil' Carnegie- Mellon University, here at the almost-end of Bitnet as we know it. There have been more than many networking problems among any of the connecting nodes between CMU, West Virginia, Ohio State, Penn State, and CUNY. The irony of it all is that most of these problems seem to have been caused by those sites trying to improve their service, either by upgrading their networking software or their entire system to handle their user (and networking) load more efficiently. Maybe this is why I'm a VAX programmer and not much of a Big Blue enthusiast! :-) In the August column of Helpdesk, I gave a rough summary of the difference states of "connection" between BITNET links. It turns out that there are many more reasons why a link may be "ACTIVE" or "INACTIVE". Thanks to Eric Thomas for these explanations of possible connection difficulties... "With RSCS V1 and a DMTNJI line, there is no way the line will stay ACTIVE for more than five or six seconds. Either the other side is INACTIVE, in which case the line falls back to INACTIVE after about six seconds, or it is ACTIVE and it becomes CONNECT within some time. For example, the FRMOP22 line is often INACTIVE on the CEARN side, and it's not our fault. We restart it every 5 minutes, and it falls back back because their side is down. "Also, even when there is no data being transferred on a line, there is a constant polling (every two seconds). These ENQ's must be answered within three seconds or a timeout will occur. DMTVMB disconnects the line (placing the line state to INACTIVE and possibly restarting the line by the restart exec) after 10 such timeouts; DMTNJI is much more sensitive. "When a line stays CONNECT although it is in fact down, it's because of a protocol bug. Side A expects a file packet ACK 1 Page 13 from side B. Side B doesn't "know" it has to send the ACK. After some time, side A sends an ENQ. Side B thinks, "what's going on?" and replies to the ENQ. Side A won't do anything useful until its packet is acknowledged, side B doesn't understand what side A is waiting for, and you need to call the local Rambo to solve the problem the hard way. :-)" Thanks, again, Eric, for helping unravel the great mystery of BITNET's RSCS networking. Does anyone want to step up and volunteer to explain "BITNET II"? :-) And now, onto today's questions... *Q* I'm searching for information for a colleague in another community college in the area who uses IBM Series 1's for computer support. Is there some form of RSCS emulator support to enable connection to BITNET? Are any other BITNET users connected via Series 1's? Is there some method of connecting that does not require RSCS? *A* I checked the file EMULATOR INFO1 (from LISTSERV@BITNIC) and wasn't able to find anything for IBM Series 1's (although I did find references to software for VAX/VMS (Jnet), Primos (RNET), Unix (UREP), Sperry 1100 (RTP/1100)). If anyone does know of such software, please send mail to HELPDESK@DRYCAS and I will forward the answer on to the person searching for the answer as well as put the answer here in NetMonth. I looked, also, in IBM's Systems and Product Guide and found some references to "Communications Manager" software, although it did not provide much information which I could decipher. Your colleague might want to get in touch with his IBM Representative and find what they have to offer. *Q* I've received several times the following answer from a node where my message was passed through: FROM node1: 16.03.01 $HASP243 PATH LOST TO node2 What is the meaning of this message? In some cases, it takes hours for it to work again. *A* Ahh, my friend HASP! Sigh. HASP is the spooling program (I don't know the exact acronym) which runs on JES2 and JES3 (MVS systems). The error you got would be translated best as "LINK node2 NOT CONNECTED" or "LINK node2 INACTIVE". It basically means that 1 Page 14 the connection between 'node1' and 'node2' is down. In some cases, you would have to wait for Operator intervention to restart the link or perhaps for service to be performed on the physical line. Contacting the appropriate Data Communications person at one of the two sites would be the best way to find out exactly what is wrong. *Q* I am wondering why I am only getting the first two pages of your magazine. At least, I get two pages consistently. Could you help me to get the rest? *A* When I received your mail, it appeared to be truncated itself. There may be a problem with your electronic mail system which causes it not to properly send (or receive?) mail messages for BITNET. Another suggestion would depend on how you are looking at the magazine when you receive it. If you are using the PEEK command on your system (assuming that you are using VM/CMS), the default for PEEK is only to show you the first 200 lines of the file which you are peeking in your virtual reader. This is an option which can be changed by specifying FOR n, where 'n' is the number of lines you wish to view (or * for the entire spool file). For example, to peek at all of file in your reader, you would use "PEEK spool-id (FOR *". (This option can be changed through the DEFAULTS command. For more information, see HELP DEFAULTS.) If this doesn't seem to be the problem, you should check what QUERY RDR says the size of the file is. (Note that if you are a privileged user on your VM system, you will need to say QUERY RDR * in order to avoid seeing everyone's reader files. :-) ) When you do the QUERY RDR, you should get output which looks something like: .QUERY RDR ORIGINID FILE CLASS RECORDS CPY HOLD FORM LISTSERV 6258 F PUN 00000789 001 NONE QULISTSV (You can use the ALL option to QUERY RDR, you will get more information about the file, such as the file name and file type.) In this example, the size of the file (which was NETMONTH 1988OCT) is 789 records. This turns out to be about 24 pages (after NETDATA decoding). If you continue to have problems receiving (and viewing) large files, you should contact a consultant or programmer at your site who will most likely be better able to help you in your own environment without making assumptions. 1 Page 15 *Q* A few weeks ago, I ordered the file BITNET SERVERS from your LISTSERV. I saw the userid LOTTERY at DRYCAS and tried to get some information about the game. Every time I tried, I failed! The only thing I did get was the message "LOTTERY not logged in." So I tried to send mail to Lottery to get the information I wanted. My mail could not be delivered saying "no such user LOTTERY at node JUPITR". (Ed. note: Sometimes when sending mail to a VAX on BITNET which is part of a VAXCluster, your mail may be passed off to another node in the cluster which may not be on BITNET. JUPITR is another in a three-node cluster with DRYCAS and often gets to do the mail processing.) I don't know how to go on to get information about Lottery. I hope you can explain all that to me. I'm still interested in the game and would like to get some details. *A* Let me start with a bit of history about Lottery. It was originally created as a small project to satisfy my curiosity about some statistical analysis of gambling. I had intended only to run it for about one month, but it got VERY popular. (I was quite amazed by its popularity, in fact.) After trying to improve Lottery and add new "games", I ended up introducing some rather nasty bugs which made the game unfair to the players. Eventually, DRYCAS was upgraded to VMS V5.0 and Lottery stopped working. The good news to all of this, though, is that Lottery IS COMING BACK! I've had many requests about it and it seems like a worthwhile effort to get it working again. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to provide facilities for people to send mail to Lottery and participate, although that's not going to be an easy task to say the least. Look for LOTTERY@DRYCAS to return to life on January 1, 1989, ready to start a new year! 1 Page 16 ********* * * NetMonth Policies * * * * Everything you ever wanted to know... * * * * ...but were afraid to ask. * * * * BITLIB@YALEVM ********* NetMonth is a network service publication distributed free of charge to students and professionals in BITNET and other networks. This magazine and its companion file, BITNET SERVERS, are the work of the BITNET Services Library (BSL) staff and contributors from around the network. BITNET SERVERS is BITNETs list of servers and services. If you know of servers not listed in BITNET SERVERS, or if some listed are no longer available, please contact the NetMonth Editor. * Subscribing to NetMonth and BITNET SERVERS: Send the following command to LISTSERV@MARIST by mail or messgage: SUBSCRIBE NETMONTH Your_full_name A subscriber can delete him/herself from the mailing list by sending LISTSERV@MARIST the command: UNSUB NETMONTH Internet users may use these methods, but must address the mail to LISTSERV@MARIST.BITNET * Back issues: BITNET users may get NetMonth back issues from the file server LISTSERV@CMUCCVMA. For a list of files, send the server the the command: INDEX NETMONTH * Letters to the Editor: If you have questions or comments about BITNET or NetMonth that you would like to see printed here, mail your letter to BITLIB@YALEVM. Make sure that you specify in the "Subject:" header or somewhere in the letter that it is for the NetMonth letters column. 1 Page 17 * Article Submissions: The only requirements for NetMonth articles and columns are that they be informative, interesting, and concern some BITNET-related topic. Send your articles and to BITLIB@YALEVM. * Printing this file: VM users can print this file by using the "( CC" option of the PRINT command. VAX/VMS users should RECEIVE NetMonth with a format of FORTRAN. This will allow page-breaks to be accepted by your printer. _ __- __--- The __----- BITNET __------- Services ___________ Library "Because We're Here." ***************************************************************