World Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions
This document resides on the World Wide Web on Sunsite (URL is
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html ).
If you are unfamiliar with the term "URL", read on and learn!
Last update: 1/23/95
Contents
1: Recent changes to the FAQ
2: Information about this document
3: Elementary Questions
3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
3.2: What is a URL?
3.3: What are SGML and HTML?
3.4: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
3.5: Are there books about the web?
4: Accessing the Web (User Questions)
4.1: Introduction: How can I access the web? (Even
by email!)
4.2: Browsers Accessible by Telnet
4.3: Obtaining browsers
4.3.1: MS Windows, IBM OS/2 and MS
Windows NT browsers
4.3.2: MSDOS browsers
4.3.3: Macintosh browsers
4.3.4: Amiga browsers
4.3.5: NeXTStep browsers
4.3.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS)
browsers
4.3.7: Text-based Unix and VMS browsers
4.3.8: VM/CMS browsers
4.3.9: Batch-mode "browsers"
4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?
4.5: What is on the web?
4.5.1: How do I find out what's new on the
web?
4.5.2: Where is the subject catalog of the web?
4.5.3: How can I search through ALL web
sites?
4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?
4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with
WinMosaic?
4.8: I have a Windows PC (or a Macintosh). Why
can't I open WAIS URLs?
4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external
viewers working?
4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring
robot! Why not?
4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to
my web client?
4.12: I can't get SLIP. I want Mosaic. Is there a
way? (YES!)
5: Providing Information to the Web (Provider Questions)
5.1: How can I provide information to the web?
5.2: Obtaining Servers
5.2.1: Unix Servers
5.2.2: Macintosh Servers
5.2.3: MS Windows, IBM OS/2 and MS
Windows NT Servers
5.2.4: MSDOS and Novell Netware Servers
5.2.5: VMS Servers
5.2.6: Amiga Servers
5.2.7: VM/CMS Servers
5.2.8: Yeah, but which is best?
5.3: Producing HTML documents
5.3.1: Writing HTML directly
5.3.2: HTML editors
5.3.3: Converting other formats to HTML
5.3.4: Checking your HTML for errors
5.4: How do I publicize my work?
5.5: Can I buy space on an existing server?
5.6: How fast does my net connection have to be?
5.7: Advanced Provider Questions
5.7.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
5.7.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't
load a new page?
5.7.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out
forms?
5.7.3.1: How can I create hidden fields
in forms (keeping state)?
5.7.3.2: How can users email me through
their browsers?
5.7.4: How do I comment an HTML document?
5.7.5: How can I create decent-looking tables
and stop using
...
?
5.7.6: What is HTML Level 3 and where can
I learn more about it?
5.7.7: How can I make interlaced and
transparent GIFs? And what are they?
5.7.8: How come mailto: URLs don't work?
5.7.9: How can I restrict and control access to
my server?
5.7.10: Which format is better for WWW
images, JPEG or GIF?
5.7.11: How can I mirror part of another
server?
5.7.12: How can I keep robots off my server?
5.7.13: How can I keep statistics about my web
site?
5.7.14: How can I generate web pages on the
fly from a program?
5.7.14.1: How can I generate GIF images
on the fly from my CGI programs?
6: Where can I discuss the Web?
6.1: USENET Newsgroups
6.2: Mailing Lists
7: I want to know more.
8: Credits
1: Recent additions and changes to the FAQ
Added htmlchek to validation section
Added information on interlaced GIFs
Added information on the WN Server
Added information on CGI script authoring
Added information on the gd GIF-generating library
Updated email links section
More books!
Slipknot section updated
GLACI-HTTPD, a WWW server for Novell Netware
WWW mailing lists section
Updated URL for Gabriel White's HTML editor reviews
IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
MapMaker: From xv's Visual Schnauzer to an imagemap
Added comp.infosystems.www.announce
Added the Arena browser
(Up to Table of Contents)
2: Information about this document
This is an introduction to the World Wide Web project, describing
the concepts, software and access methods. It is aimed at people
who know a little about navigating the Internet, but want to
know more about WWW specifically. If you don't think you are
up to this level, try an introductory Internet book such as Ed
Krol's "The Whole Internet" or "EFF's Guide to the Internet".
The latter is available electronically by anonymous FTP from
ftp.eff.org in the directory pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide.
This informational document is posted to news.answers,
comp.infosystems.www.users, comp.infosystems.www.providers,
comp.infosystems.www.announce, comp.infosystems.www.misc,
comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext
every four days (please allow a day or two for it to propagate to
your site). The latest and best version is always available on the
web as http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html , and is
mirrored in Japan (URL is
http://www.glocom.ac.jp/mirror/sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html ).
(see section 3.2, "What is a URL?" to understand what this term
means.) If you run a mirror site which automatically mirrors this
document, please submit the URL for inclusion in the list of
mirrors. Thanks to both Sunsite and Glocom.
This document is also available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.netcom.com in the directory pub/bo/boutell/faq.
In addition, the most recently posted version of this document is
kept on the news.answers archive on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq. For information on FTP, send
e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with:
send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources
in the body (not subject line) of your message, instead of asking
me.
If you want the HTML version but are located behind a firewall,
you can acquire it from CERN's WWW email server. Send mail
to listproc@www0.cern.ch with the following single line in the body
(leave the subject blank):
source
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html
Thomas Boutell maintains this document. Feedback about it is to
be sent via e-mail to boutell@netcom.com.
In all cases, regard this document as out of date. Definitive
information should be on the web, and static versions such as this
should be considered unreliable at best. The most up-to-date
version of the FAQ is the version maintained on the web. Please
excuse any formatting inconsistencies in the posted version of this
document, as it is automatically generated from the on-line
version.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3: Elementary questions
3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
WWW stands for "World Wide Web". The WWW project, started
by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics), seeks to
build a distributed hypermedia system.
The advantage of hypertext is that in a hypertext document, if
you want more information about a particular subject mentioned,
you can usually "just click on it" to read further detail. In fact,
documents can be and often are linked to other documents by
completely different authors -- much like footnoting, but you can
get the referenced document instantly!
To access the web, you run a browser program. The browser reads
documents, and can fetch documents from other sources.
Information providers set up hypermedia servers which browsers
can get documents from.
The browsers can, in addition, access files by FTP, NNTP (the
Internet news protocol), gopher and an ever-increasing range of
other methods. On top of these, if the server has search
capabilities, the browsers will permit searches of documents and
databases.
The documents that the browsers display are hypertext documents.
Hypertext is text with pointers to other text. The browsers let you
deal with the pointers in a transparent way -- select the pointer,
and you are presented with the text that is pointed to.
Hypermedia is a superset of hypertext -- it is any medium with
pointers to other media. This means that browsers might not
display a text file, but might display images or sound or
animations.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.2: What is a URL?
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator". It is a draft standard
for specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or
newsgroup.
URLs look like this: (file: and ftp: URLs are synonymous.)
file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors
http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html
news:alt.hypertext
telnet://dra.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access
method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted
specific to the access method. In general, two slashes after the
colon indicate a machine name (machine:port is also valid).
When you are told to "check out this URL", what to do next
depends on your browser; please check the help for your particular
browser. For the line-mode browser at CERN, which you will
quite possibly use first via telnet, the command to try a URL is
"GO URL" (substitute the actual URL of course). In Lynx you
just select the "GO" link on the first page you see; in graphical
browsers, there's usually an "Open URL" option in the menus.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3: What are SGML and HTML?
Documents on the World Wide Web are written in a simple
"markup language" called HTML, which stands for Hypertext
Markup Language. See section 5.3 for more information about
creating HTML documents for use on the web.
SGML is a much broader language which is used to define
particular markup languages for particular purposes. HTML is just
a specific application of SGML. You can learn more about SGML,
and the rationale behind HTML, by reading A Gentle Introduction
to SGML (URL is
http://etext.virginia.edu/bin/tei-tocs?div=DIV1%26id=SG ), a document
provided by the Text Encoding Initiative. (Note: Some browsers
apparently crash on this URL. There's nothing wrong with the
document; try another browser if you have problems.)
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
While all three of these information presentation systems are
client-server based, they differ in terms of their model of data. In
gopher, data is either a menu, a document, an index or a telnet
connection. In WAIS, everything is an index and everything that
is returned from the index is a document. In WWW, everything is
a (possibly) hypertext document which may be searchable.
In practice, this means that WWW can represent the gopher (a
menu is a list of links, a gopher document is a hypertext
document without links, searches are the same, telnet sessions are
the same) and WAIS (a WAIS index is a searchable page,
returning a document with no links) data models as well as
providing extra functionality.
World Wide Web usage grew far beyond Gopher usage in the last
few months, according to the statistics-keepers of the Internet
backbone. (Of course, World Wide Web browsers can also access
Gopher servers, which inflates the numbers for the latter.) WWW
has long since reached critical mass, with new commercial and
noncommercial sites appearing daily.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.5: Are there books about the web?
Yes, quite a few. A brief list follows. New entries are solicited.
Please include ISBN numbers and/or ordering information.
The Mosaic Handbook (Mac, Windows and X editions)
From O'Reilly. A short, sweet guide to the World Wide
Web from a Mosaic user's perspective. Mac and Windows
versions Include Enhanced NCSA Mosaic on floppy disk; the
X Window System version includes NCSA Mosaic on
CD-ROM. Telnet or gopher to gopher.ora.com (log in as
gopher) or find details on the web (URL is
http://gnn.com/ora/ ). Wherever fine X Window System books
and Nutshell Guides are sold.
The World Wide Web Unleashed
From Sams Publishing. By John December and Neil Randall.
Additional chapters contributed by others; I wrote the
chapter on HTML editors and filters. Covers both user and
provider issues in detail. Supporting pages available on the
web (URL is http://www.rpi.edu/~decemj/works/wwwu.html ).
1057 pages. ISBN: 0-672-30617-4. Call 1-800-428-5331 or
+1-317-581-3500 for ordering information.
Spinning the Web: How to Provide Information on the Internet
From Van Nostrand Reinhold. By Andrew Ford. Oriented
toward those with an interest in putting their data on the
web. ISBN: 1-850-32141-8 (New York), 0-442-01962-9
(London). Available in December 1994.
Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week
From Sams Publishing. By Laura Lemay. Also oriented
toward those who plan to publish materials on the web.
ISBN: 0-672-30667-0. 400 pages. Includes information on
setting up servers and handling forms results as well as
HTML writing and editing. (URL is:
http://slack.lne.com/lemay/theBook/index.html ) Available
December 22nd, 1994. Call 1-800-428-5331 or
+1-317-581-3500 for ordering information.
The HTML Manual of Style
From Ziff-Davis Press. By Larry Aronson. Chapters:
introduction to the WWW, the HTML language, writing
HTML documents, and HTML examples. 120 pages.
Available in December 1994.
The Internet via Mosaic and World-Wide Web
From Ziff-Davis Press. By Steve Browne. Details on
obtaining Mosaic and Trumpet Winsock, getting it all set
up, and what to do with it once it works. A chapter of
interesting sites on the Web as well. ISBN: 1-56276-259-1.
MOSAIC Quick Tour
From Ventana Press. By Gareth Branwyn. A good guide to
installing and using NCSA Mosaic under Windows. Includes
basic HTML and trouble-shooting chapters. "More
hand-holding than the FAQ and gives lots of details." -
Mari J. Stoddard
Managing Internet Information Services
From O'Reilly and Associates. By Cricket Liu, Jerry Peek,
Russ Jones, Bryan Buus & Adrian Nye. A good choice for
those who will be installing and maintaining WWW servers;
also includes documentation on HTML, imagemaps and the
like. Also covers other types of Internet services.
Hands-On Mosaic: A Guide for Window Users
From Prentice Hall. By Dr. David Sachs & Henry Stair.
ISBN: 0-13-172321-9.
HTML Authoring for Fun & Profit
From Prentice Hall. By Mary Morris. Jan 1995. ISBN:
0-13-359290-1.
NCSA Mosaic Handbook
From Prentice Hall. By Amy K. Kreiling & Frank Baker.
Jan 1995. ISBN: 0-13-196692-8.
Plug-n-Play Mosaic for Windows
From Sams. By Angela Gunn. ISBN 0-672-30627-1. 300
pages. Disks include a special version of Enhanced NCSA
Mosaic for Windows with built-in TCP/IP Winsock and
dialer, and an automated configuration program (hence
"plug-n-play"). The book is an introduction to Mosaic and
the Web with some coverage of creating a home page and
HTML and, of course, the obligatory directory of Web sites.
Using Mosaic
From Que. Ed. by Que Development Group. ISBN:
0-7897-0021-2. Covers NCSA Mosaic for Windows and the
Macintosh.
Using the World Wide Web
From Que. Ed. by Que Development Group. ISBN:
0-7897-0016-6.
Mosaic User's Guide
From MIS Press. By Bryan Pfaffenberger. ISBN:
1-55828-409-5.
Using Mosaic for Windows
From Electric Avenue Press. By Stephen Gauer. ISBN:
0-969-8853-0-X.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.1: Introduction: how can I access the web?
You have three options: use a browser on your own machine (the
best option), use a browser that can be telnetted to (not as good),
or access the web by email (the least attractive, but for some it's
the only way). It is always best to run a browser on your own
machine, unless you absolutely cannot do so; but feel free to
telnet to a browser for your first look at the web, or use email if
the telnet command does not work on your system (try it first!).
Note that "your machine" can be defined as a system you dial
into from home, such as netcom or another account provider.
Running a text-based browser on such a system is still preferable
to telnetting to a faraway site.
The following sections cover telnetting to a browser and obtaining
your own browser; if neither of these are possible for you (because
you have only an email-and-news connection to the Internet),
here is how to access a web page by email:
Send email to server@mail.w3.org (preferred) or to
listserv@info.cern.ch (older address if the first fails)
containing the following single line. (What you put on the subject
line doesn't matter; blank is OK. This line should go in the text
of the message.) You will receive as a reply a simple page
intended to help you learn more about the Web.
send http://www.earn.net/gnrt/www.html
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.2: Browsers accessible by telnet
An up-to-date list of these is available on the Web as
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/FAQ/Bootstrap.html and should be
regarded as an authoritative list.
telnet.w3.org
A telnettable browser provided by the W3 coalition.
www.cc.ukans.edu
Offers Lynx, a full screen browser which requires a vt100
terminal. Log in as www. Does not allow users to "go" to
arbitrary URLs, so GET YOUR OWN COPY of Lynx and
install it on your system if your administrator has not done
so already. The best plain-text browser, so move mountains
if necessary to get your own copy of Lynx!
www.njit.edu
(or telnet 128.235.163.2) Log in as www. A full-screen
browser in New Jersey Institute of Technology. USA.
www.huji.ac.il
A dual-language Hebrew/English database, with links to the
rest of the world. The line mode browser, plus extra
features. Log in as www. Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Israel.
sun.uakom.cs
Slovakia. Has a slow link, only use from nearby.
info.funet.fi
(or telnet 128.214.6.102). Log in as www. Offers several
browsers, including Lynx (goto option is disabled there also).
fserv.kfki.hu
Hungary. Has slow link, use from nearby. Login is as www.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3: Obtaining browsers
The preferred method of access of the Web is to run a browser
yourself. Browsers are available for many platforms, both in source
and executable forms. Here is a list generated from the
authoritative list, http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html .
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.1: Microsoft Windows browsers
NOTE: Most of these browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP
or other TCP/IP networking on your PC. The sole exception is
SlipKnot, which has limited features but operates well without a
proper Internet connection. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over
phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper
SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your
network provider or educational institution, or using The Internet
Adapter (section 4.12), a product which simulates SLIP through
your dialup Unix shell account. If you only have non-Unix based
dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at
this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you
call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.
Cello
Browser from Cornell LII. Available by anonymous FTP
from ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/cello.
Mosaic for Windows
From NCSA. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory PC/Windows/Mosaic.
WinWeb
From EINet. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net
in the directory /einet/pc/winweb as the file winweb.zip.
Netscape
From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and
displays images incrementally while you read pages, which
also display incrementally, making it the best browser at the
time of this writing for those who connect to the web via
modems. Also supports many extensions to HTML, although
not all conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a
commercial product but can be evaluated free of charge for
an unlimited period of time by individuals. Netscape supports
some of the official extended HTML tags as well as its
own variations. The 16-bit version works under both OS/2
and Windows. Available by anonymous FTP from the
following sites (use the mirror closest to you; see the URL
above for the latest list):
ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Netscape/
ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Spry Mosaic
From Spry. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.spry.com
in the directory AirMosaicDemo as the file
AMOSDEMO.EXE. Spry Mosaic is a commercial product but
a demonstration version is available and can be registered
inexpensively. Works under Windows and OS/2. Supports the
mailto: URL, transparent GIFs, ALT tags, hierarchical
hotlists, etc.
Booklink
From Booklink. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.booklink.com in the directory lite; this is a
demonstration version of the full browser, which costs $99.
Booklink can open many simultaneous connections in
different windows and display images and pages progressively;
at the time of this writing it is the only browser to equal
Netscape in this area. The "lite" version can only open two
simultaneous connections, however.
SlipKnot
SlipKnot is the only graphical WWW browser that operates
entirely without SLIP, PPP, an Ethernet connection, or
special server-side software (but consider TIA, section 4.12
for another workaround). SlipKnot supports multiple fonts,
inline images, and review of documents you have already
received while new documents arrive, and it operates
entirely through your regular Unix shell account. SlipKnot
does not require that you install any new software on your
Unix shell account. (However, it is lacking certain important
features as a result, such as forms and validation; this will
keep you from accessing some web pages. SlipKnot does
support the tag, which many sites support as a
simpler alternative to forms.) You can obtain SlipKnot by
anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com in the directory
pub/pbrooks/slipknot or from oak.oakland.edu in the directory
SimTel/win3/internet. For more information, see the SlipKnot
information page (URL is
http://www.interport.net/slipknot/slipknot.html ) or send a
blank email message to slipknot@micromind.com.
IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
A native IBM OS/2 web browser. WebExplorer is a
multithreaded application and replaces the usual "back" and
"forward" buttons with a visual map of your exploration of
the web. IBM WebExplorer can be acquired by anonymous
FTP from ftp01.ny.us.ibm.net in the directory
pub/WebExplorer/ .
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.2: MSDOS browsers
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other
TCP/IP networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished
over phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a
proper SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your
network provider or educational institution, or using The Internet
Adapter (section 4.12), a product which simulates SLIP through
your dialup Unix shell account. If you only have non-Unix based
dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at
this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you
call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.
DosLynx
DosLynx is an excellent text-based browser for use on DOS
systems. You must have a level 1 packet driver, or an
emulation thereof, or you will only be able to browse local
files; essentially, if your PC has an Ethernet connection, or
you have SLIP, you should be able to use it. DosLynx can
view GIF images, but not when they are inline images (as
of this writing). See the README.HTM file at the
DosLynx site for details. You can obtain DosLynx by
anonymous FTP from ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory
pub/WWW/DosLynx; the URL is
ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.3: Macintosh browsers
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other
TCP/IP networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished
over phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a
proper SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your
network provider or educational institution, or using The Internet
Adapter (section 4.12), a product which simulates SLIP through
your dialup Unix shell account. If you only have non-Unix based
dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at
this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you
call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.
Mosaic for Macintosh
From NCSA. Full featured. Available by anonymous FTP
from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mac/Mosaic.
Netscape
From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and
displays images incrementally while you read pages, which
also display incrementally, making it the best browser at the
time of this writing for those who connect to the web via
modems. Also supports many extensions to HTML, although
not all conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a
commercial product but can be evaluated free of charge for
an unlimited period of time by individuals. Available by
anonymous FTP from the following sites (use the mirror
closest to you; see the URL above for the latest list):
ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Mosaic_Comm/Netscape/
ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Samba
From CERN. Basic. Available by anonymous FTP from
info.cern.ch in the directory /ftp/pub/www/bin as the file
mac.
MacWeb
From EINet. Has features that Mosaic lacks; lacks some
features that Mosaic has. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.einet.net in the directory einet/mac/macweb.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.4: Amiga browsers
AMosaic
Browser for AmigaOS, based on NCSA's Mosaic. Supports
older Amigas as well as the newer machines in the latest
versions; available for anonymous ftp from
max.physics.sunysb.edu in the directory /pub/amosaic, or from
aminet sites in /pub/aminet/comm/net. see the site for
details. See the URL
http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html .
Emacs-W3
The Emacs-W3 browser works under Gnu Emacs on the
Amiga (see section 4.3.7).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.5: NeXTStep browsers
Note: NeXTStep systems can also run X-based browsers using one
of the widely used X server products for the NeXT. The browsers
listed here, by contrast, are native NeXTStep applications.
SpiderWoman
A brand-new (as of 12/94), multithreaded, graphical browser
for NeXTStep. Available by anonymous FTP from
sente.epfl.ch in the directory pub/software.
OmniWeb
A World Wide Web browser for NeXTStep. The URL for
more information is http://www.omnigroup.com/; you can ftp
the package from ftp.omnigroup.com in the /pub/software/
directory.
WorldWideWeb, CERN's NeXT Browser-Editor
A browser/editor for NeXTStep. Currently out of date; editor
not operational. Allows wysiwyg hypertext editing. Requires
NeXTStep 3.0. Available for anonymous FTP from
info.cern.ch in the directory /pub/www/src.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS) browsers
NCSA Mosaic for X
Unix browser using X11/Motif. The original multimedia
browser. Full http 1.0 support including PUT-method forms,
image maps, etc. Recent beta versions have limited support
for tables. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mosaic.
NCSA Mosaic for VMS
Browser using X11/DecWindows/Motif. For the VMS
operating system. Full http 1.0 support including
PUT-method forms, image maps, etc. Probably the best
browser available for VMS. Available by anonymous FTP
from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mosaic.
Netscape
From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is:
http://home.mcom.com/info/index.html ). Downloads and
displays images incrementally while you read pages, which
also display incrementally, making it the best browser at the
time of this writing for those who connect to the web via
modems. Also supports many extensions to HTML, although
not all conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a
commercial product but can be evaluated free for an
indefinite period of time by individuals. use by individuals.
Version 0.9 (available to the Available by anonymous FTP
from the following sites (use the mirror closest to you; see
the URL above for the latest list):
ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/info-service/www/mcc/
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/net/infosys/Mosaic_Comm/Netscape/
ftp://ftp.icsi.net/pub/packages/netscape/
ftp://www.sandia.gov/Netscape/
ftp://lark.cc.ukans.edu/Netscape/
ftp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/netscape/
ftp://ftp.meer.net/pub/Netscape/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Netscape/
Quadralay GWHIS Viewer (Commercial Mosaic)
Quadralay offers a commercial-grade (not free!) version of
Mosaic for Unix systems, with Windows and Macintosh
versions expected in the future. (URL is:
http://www.quadralay.com/products/products.html#gwhis)
tkWWW Browser/Editor for X11
Unix Browser/Editor for X11. (Beta test version.) Available
for anonymous ftp from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the
directory tkwww[extension] (followed by an extension possibly
dependent on the current version). Please ftp to the site
and look for the latest version (or use the link above).
Supports WSYIWYG HTML editing.
MidasWWW Browser
A Unix/X browser from Tony Johnson. (Beta, works well.)
Viola for X (Beta)
Viola has two versions for Unix/X: one using Motif, one
using Xlib (no Motif). Handles HTML Level 3 forms and
tables. Has extensions for multiple columning,
collapsible/expandable list, client-side document include.
Available by anonymous FTP from ora.com in
/pub/www/viola. More information available at the URL
http://xcf.berkeley.edu/ht/projects/viola/README.
Chimera
Unix/X Browser using Athena (doesn't require Motif).
Supports forms, inline images, etc.; closest to Mosaic in feel
of the non-Motif X11 browsers. Available for anonymous
FTP from ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the directory /pub/chimera.
Emacs w3 mode
The Emacs w3 mode supports multiple fonts, color, inline
images, movies, and the whole nine yards when run under
a graphical version of emacs; see section 4.3.7.
Arena
Arena's primary purpose is to be a testbed for HTML Level
3 documents. As a result, Arena supports many of the new
and interesting features of HTML Level 3. As of this
writing it is still in prerelease and expectations should be
set accordingly! Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.w3.org in the directory pub/www/arena/ .
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.7: Text-mode Unix and VMS browsers
These are text-based browsers for Unix (and in some cases also
VMS) systems. In many cases your system administrator will have
already installed one or more of these packages; check before
compiling your own copy.
Line Mode Browser
This program gives W3 readership to anyone with a dumb
terminal. A general purpose information retrieval tool.
Available by anonymous ftp from info.cern.ch in the
directory /pub/www/src.
The "Lynx" full screen browser
This is a hypertext browser for vt100s using full screen,
arrow keys, highlighting, etc. Available by anonymous FTP
from ftp2.cc.ukans.edu.
Tom Fine's perlWWW
A tty-based browser written in perl. Available by
anonymous FTP from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu in the
directory pub/w3browser as the file w3browser-0.1.shar.
For VMS
Dudu Rashty's full screen client based on VMS's SMG
screen management routines. Available by anonymous FTP
from vms.huji.ac.il in the directory www/www_client.
Emacs w3-mode
A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows,
NeXTstep, VMS, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1,
AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix system. Also has fonts,
color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs,
Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode under DOS
and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.8: VM/CMS Browsers
Albert
A WWW browser for the VM/CMS operating system.
Available by anonymous FTP from gopher.ufl.edu in the
directory pub/vm/www/.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3.9: Batch-Mode "Browsers"
Batch mode browser
A batch-mode "browser", url_get, which is available through
the URL http://www.utexas.edu/~zippy/url_get.html . It can be
retrieved via anonymous FTP to ftp.cc.utexas.edu, as the file
/pub/zippy/url_get.tar.Z. This package is intended for use in
cron jobs and other settings in which fetching a page in a
command-line fashion is useful.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?
A "proxy server" is a specialized HTTP server which (typically)
runs on a firewall machine, providing access to the outside world
for people inside the firewall. The CERN httpd can be configured
to run as a proxy. Furthermore, it is able to perform caching of
documents, resulting in faster response times.
If you cannot arrange to run a proxy server (definitely the
recommended approach), read on:
For information on using NCSA Mosaic from behind a firewall,
please read the following. In general, browsers can be made useful
behind firewalls through the use of a package called "SOCKS";
the source must be modified slightly and rebuilt to accommodate
this. Whenever possible, work with your network administrators to
solve the problem, not against them.
An excerpt from the NCSA Mosaic FAQ:
NCSA Mosaic requires a direct internet connection to work, but
some folks have put together a package that works behind
firewalls. This is completely unsupported by NCSA, but here is the
latest announcement:
November 15, 1993: C&C Software Technology Center (CSTC)
of NEC Systems Lab has made available a version of
SOCKS, a package for running Internet clients from behind
firewalls without breaching security requirements, that includes
a suitably modified version of Mosaic for X 2.0. Beware: such
a version is not supported by NCSA; we can't help with questions or
problems arising from the modifications made by others. But, we
encourage you to check it out if it's interesting to you.
Questions and problem notifications can be sent to Ying-Da
Lee (ylee@syl.dl.nec.com).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.5: What is on the web?
Currently accessible through the web:
anything served through gopher
anything served through WAIS
anything on an FTP site
anything on Usenet
anything accessible through telnet
anything in hytelnet
anything in hyper-g
anything in techinfo
anything in texinfo
anything in the form of man pages
sundry hypertext documents
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.5.1: How do I find out what's new on the web?
comp.infosystems.www.announce
The newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.announce carries
announcements of new resources on the World Wide Web.
Since newsgroups are distributed, it can be accessed reliably
even when the net is very busy.
What's New With NCSA Mosaic
The unofficial newspaper of the World Wide Web is What's
New With NCSA Mosaic (URL is
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html
), which carries announcements of new servers on the web
and also of new web-related tools. This should be in your
hot list if you're not using Mosaic (which can access it
directly through the help menu).
comp.internet.net-happinings
You can also check out the newsgroup
comp.internet.net-happenings, which carries WWW
announcements and many other Internet-related
announcements.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.5.2: Where is the subject catalog of the web?
There are several. There is no mechanism inherent in the web
which forces the creation of a single catalog (although there is
work underway on automatic mechanisms to catalog web sites).
The best-known catalog, and the first, is The WWW Virtual
Library (URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html ),
maintained by CERN. The Virtual Library is a good place to find
resources on a particular subject, and has separate maintainers for
many subject areas.
There is also a newer cataloging system called ALIWEB that
requires very little effort to maintain and is growing rapidly (URL
is http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html ).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.5.3: How can I search through ALL web sites?
Several people have written robots which create indexes of web
sites -- including sites which have not arranged to be mentioned
in the newspapers and catalogs above. (Before writing your own
robot, please read the section on robots.)
Here are a few such automatic indexes you can search:
WebCrawler (URL is
http://webcrawler.cs.washington.edu/WebCrawler/WebQuery.html
) builds an impressively complete index; on the other hand,
since it indexes the content of documents, it may find
many links that aren't exactly what you had in mind.
However, it does a good job of sorting the documents it
finds according to how closely they match your search.
World Wide Web Worm (URL is
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html ) builds
its index based on page titles and URL contents only. This
is somewhat less inclusive, but pages it finds are more likely
to be an exact match with your needs.
Lycos (URL is http://fuzine.mt.cs.cmu.edu/mlm/lycos-home.html
) is another web-indexing robot, which includes the ability
to submit the URLs of your own documents by hand,
ensuring that they are available for searching.
You can read about other robots in the robots section.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?
Here are two ways:
1. Turn on "load to local disk" in your browser, if it has such
an option; then reload images. You'll be prompted for filenames
instead of seeing them on the screen. Be sure to shut it off when
you're done with it.
2. Choose "view source" and browse through the HTML source;
find the URL for the inline image of interest to you; copy and
paste it into the "Open URL" window. This should load it into
your image viewer instead, where you can save it and otherwise
muck about with it.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
This piece of wisdom donated by Hunter Monroe:
This section explains how to install sound on a PC which already
has a working version of Mosaic for Microsoft Windows. Be
warned in advance that the results may be poor.
To get Mosaic to produce sound out of the PC speaker, first, you
need a driver for the speaker. You can get the Microsoft speaker
driver from the URL
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE or by doing an
Archie search to find it somewhere else. SPEAK.EXE is a
self-extracting file. Copy the speak.exe file to a new directory, and
then type "SPEAK" at the DOS prompt. Do not put the file
SPEAKER.DRV in a separate directory from OEMSETUP.INF.
Now, you need to install the driver. In Windows, from the
Program Manager choose successively Main/Control
Panel/Drivers/Add/Unlisted or updated drivers/(enter path of
SPEAK.EXE)/PC Speaker. At this point some strange sounds come
out as the driver is initialized. Change the settings to improve the
sound quality on the various sounds: tada, chimes, etc. Click OK
when you are finished and choose the Restart windows option.
Having installed the speaker driver, you will now get sounds
whenever you start Windows, make a mistake, or exit Windows. If
you do not want this, from the Main/Control Panel/Sounds menu,
make sure there is no X next to "Enable System Sounds."
Now, you need a sound viewer program that Mosaic can call to
display sounds. NCSA unfortunately recommend WHAM, which
does not work well with a PC speaker. Get the program
WPLANY instead. You can find a copy nearby with an Archie
search on the string "wplny"; the current version is
WPLNY09B.ZIP. For details on archie and other basic issues
related to FTP, please read the Usenet newsgroup
news.announce.newusers.
Move the zip file to a new directory, and use an unzip program
like pkunzip to unzip it, producing the files WPLANY.EXE and
WPLANY.DOC. Then edit the MOSAIC.INI file to remove the
"REM" before the line "TYPE9=audio/basic". Then, you need lines
in the section below that read something like:
audio/basic="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls"
audio/wav="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" where you have filled in the
correct path for wplany.exe. The MOSAIC.INI file delivered with
Mosaic may have NOTEPAD.EXE on the audio/basic line, but this
will not work. Now, restart Mosaic, and you should now be able
to produce sounds. To check this, with Mosaic choose File/Local
File/\WINDOWS\*.WAV and then try to play TADA.WAV. Then,
you might try the Mosaic Demo document for some .AU sounds,
but you are lucky if your speaker produces something you can
understand.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.8: I have a Windows PC or Macintosh. Why can't I access WAIS
URLs?
This answer provided by Michael Grady (m-grady@uiuc.edu):
The version of Mosaic for X has "wais client" code built-in to it.
This was relatively easy for the developers to do, because there
was already a set of library routines for talking to WAIS
available for Unix as "public domain" (freeWAIS). I don't think
there is such a library of routines for PC/Windows or Mac, which
would make it much more difficult for the Mosaic versions for
Windows and the Mac to add "wais client" capability. Therefore,
at least for now, neither the Windows or Mac versions of Mosaic
support direct query of a WAIS server (i.e. can act as wais
clients themselves).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers working...
... No matter what no matter what I do to my .mailcap and
.mime.types files?
Answer provided by Ronald E. Daniel (rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov):
Mosaic only looks at the .mime.types file if it has no idea
what the document's type is. This is actually a very rare
situation. Essentially all servers now use the HTTP/1.0
protocol, which means that they tell Mosaic (or other
browsers) what the document's MIME Content-type is. The
servers use a file very much like Mosaic's .mime.types file to
infer the Content-type from the filename's extension.
It is pretty simple to find out if this really is the problem.
Use telnet to talk to the server and find out if it is
assigning a MIME type to the document in question. Here's
an example, looking at the home page for my server.
(idaknow: is my shell prompt)
idaknow: telnet www.acl.lanl.gov 80 // Connect to the httpd server
Trying 128.165.148.3 ...
Connected to www.acl.lanl.gov.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD /Home.html HTTP/1.0 // replace Home.html with your document
// you supply the blank line
HTTP/1.0 200 OK // the rest of this comes from the server Date: Wednesday, 25-May-94 19:18:11 GMT
Server: NCSA/1.1
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html // Here's the MIME Content-type
Last-modified: Monday, 16-May-94 16:21:58 GMT
Content-length: 1727
Connection closed by foreign host.
idaknow:
In the example above, /Home.html will get
http://www.acl.lanl.gov/Home.html .
Normally servers will be configured to supply a Content-type
of text/plain if they don't know what else to do. If this is
the problem you are having, take a look at the TypesConfig
documentation for NCSA's httpd. You can have the server
look at the filename extension, supply the correct
Content-type, then use your local .mailcap file to tell Mosaic
what viewer to use to look at the document.
Russ Segal adds:
The answer from Ronald Daniel is essentially correct, but it
needs a small addendum.
When starting Moasic, you can specify a "fileProxy" which
will fetch files for you:
"*fileProxy: http://socks/"
If you do this, file: URLs are no longer strictly local accesses.
So even if the URL is not fttp:, the proxy server must be
upgraded as Mr. Daniel suggests.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring robot! Why not?
Programs that automatically traverse the web can be quite useful,
but have the potential to make a serious mess of things. Robots
have been written which do a "breadth-first" search of the web,
exploring many sites in a gradual fashion instead of aggressively
"rooting out" the pages of one site at a time. Some of these
robots now produce excellent indexes of information available on
the web.
But others have written simple depth-first searches which, at the
worst, can bring servers to their knees in minutes by recursively
downloading information from CGI script-based pages that contain
an infinite number of possible links. (Often robots can't realize
this!) Imagine what happens when a robot decides to "index" the
CONTENTS of several hundred mpeg movies. Shudder.
The moral: a robot that does what you want may already exist; if
it doesn't, please study the document World Wide Web Robots,
Wanderers and Spiders (URL is:
http://web.nexor.co.uk/mak/doc/robots/robots.html ) and learn about
the emerging standards for exclusion of robots from areas in
which they are not wanted. You can also read about existing
robots there.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to my web client?
How to do this depends greatly on your system; if you have a
Mac or Windows system, the answer is completely different. But,
as food for thought, here is a simple shell script I use on my
Unix account to send posts from rn and related newsreaders to
Lynx. Put this text in the file "readwebpost" and use the "chmod"
command to make it executable, then put it somewhere in your
path (such as your personal bin directory):
#!/bin/sh
echo \ > .article.html
cat >> .article.html
echo \ >> .article.html
lynx .article.html < /dev/tty
rm .article.html
Then add the following line to your .rnmac file (create it if you
don't already have one):
W |readwebpost %C
Now, when you press "W" while reading a post in rn, a message
will be sent to Lynx, and the links enclosed in it will be live.
Larry W. Virden provides the following version which invokes
Mosaic instead, and is also capable of communicating with an
already-running copy of Mosaic instead of launching another. (You
can use the same rn macro as above, invoking "goto-xm" instead
of "readwebpost".) Read the comments for details on the
assumptions made by the script.
#! /bin/sh
# goto-xm, by Joseph T. Buck
# Modified heavily by Larry W. Virden
# Script for use with newsreaders such as trn. Piping the article
# through this command causes xmosaic to pop up, pointing to the
# article. If an existing xmosaic (version 1.1 or later) exists,
# the USR1 method will be used to cause it to point to the correct
# article, otherwise a new one will be started.
# assumptions: ps command works as is on SunOS 4.1.x, may need changes
# on other platforms.
URL=`/bin/grep '^Message-ID:' | /bin/sed -e 's/.*.*//'`
if [ "X$URL" = "X" ]; then
echo "USAGE: $0 [goto] [once] < USENET_msg" >&2
exit 1
fi
pid=`ps -xc | egrep '[Mm]osaic' | awk 'NR == 1 {print $1}'`
p=`which Mosaic`
gfile=/tmp/Mosaic.$pid
$p "$URL" &
if [ "$#" -gt 0 ] ; then
if [ "$1" = "goto" -o "$1" = "same" ] ; then
shift
echo "goto" > $gfile
else
echo "newwin" > $gfile
fi
else
echo "newwin" > $gfile
fi
/bin/awk 'END { printf "'"$URL"'" }' > $gfile
trap "echo signal encountered" 30
kill -USR1 $pid
exit 0
See also MosaicMail (URL is
http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/mhonarc.doc.html ), a Perl script
which pipes email and/or news to your current Mosaic session.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.12: I can't get SLIP. I want Mosaic. Is there a way?
YES! If you have a plain old Unix shell account on a Unix
system, such as a SunOS or Ultrix system, you can do one of two
things: you can run SlipKnot, a special browser which operates
using programs that may already be installed on your shell
account (see section 4.3.1), or you can run The Internet Adapter
(TIA), a program which provides a pseudo-SLIP connection. The
remainder of this section focuses on TIA.
TIA is not free software, but there is a free two-week trial
period and it is very cheap to register.
"So what do I run on my machine at home?"
Exactly the same software you would use for real SLIP; as far as
your PC is concerned, it is a SLIP connection. If you're
unfamiliar with SLIP please check out a newsgroup relevant to
your particular type of PC (Windows, Mac, etc). (This isn't
restricted to common systems; because all the emulation happens
on your Unix shell account, your client machine can run anything
that supports SLIP.)
"Details, please! I'm confused."
Check out the TIA home page (URL is
http://marketplace.com/tia/tiahome.html ), or send email to
info@marketplace.com and request details about TIA.
If you have a Macintosh, check out the Macintosh TIA Users'
FAQ (URL is: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bi/billa/tia/faq.html ) for
additional help.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.1: How can I provide information to the web?
Information providers run programs that the browsers can obtain
hypertext from. These programs can either be WWW servers that
understand the HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP (best if you are
creating your information database from scratch), "gateway"
programs that convert an existing information format to hypertext,
or a non-HTTP server that WWW browsers can access --
anonymous FTP or gopher, for example.
To learn more about World Wide Web servers, you can consult a
www server primer by Nathan Torkington, available at the URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-servers.html .
If you only want to provide information to local users, placing
your information in local files is also an option. This means,
however, that there can be no off-machine access.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2: Obtaining Servers
Servers are available for Unix, Macintosh, MS Windows, Windows
NT, OS/2, and VMS systems. If you know of a server for another
operating system, please contact me.
See http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html for
more information on writing servers and gateways in general.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.1: Unix Servers
NCSA httpd
NCSA has released a server, known as the NCSA httpd; it
is available at the URL ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/ncsa_httpd .
EIT httpd
EIT has created the Webmaster's Starter Kit, which installs
their WWW server on your system via the web through a
painless forms interface. Recommended for those unfamiliar
with server installation. You can learn more about the
starter kit and the EIT httpd at the starter kit site (URL
is http://wsk.eit.com/wsk/doc/ ).
CERN httpd
CERN's server is available for anonymous FTP from
info.cern.ch (URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Status.html
) and many other places. Use your local copy of archie to
search for "www" in order to find a nearby site.
GN Gopher/HTTP server
The GN server is unique in that it can serve both WWW
and Gopher clients (in their native modes). This is a good
server for those migrating from Gopher to WWW, although
it does not have the server-side-script capabilities of the
NCSA and CERN servers. See the URL
http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/.
Perl server
There is also a server written in the Perl scripting language,
called Plexus, for which documentation is available at the
URL http://bsdi.com/server/doc/plexus.html .
WN Server
The WN Server, available at the URL
http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/manual.html , is designed with
an emphasis on security and flexibility, and takes a different
approach from the NCSA and CERN servers. It provides
text searching facilities as a standard feature.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.2: Macintosh Servers
There is a server for the Macintosh, MacHTTP, available at the
URL http://www.uth.tmc.edu/mac_info/machttp_info.html .
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.3: MS Windows, IBM OS/2 and MS Windows NT Servers
HTTPS (Windows NT)
HTTPS is a server for Windows NT systems, both Intel and
Alpha -- based. It is available via anonymous FTP from
emwac.ed.ac.uk in the directory pub/https (URL is
ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https). (Be sure to download the
version appropriate to your processor.) You can read a
detailed announcement at the FTP site, or by using the
URL ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https/https.txt.
A professional version is also available (URL is
http://emwac.ed.ac.uk/html/internet_toolchest/https/prof.htm ).
NCSA httpd for Windows
The NCSA httpd for Windows has most of the features of
the Unix version, including scripts (which generate pages on
the fly based on user input). It is available by anonymous
FTP from the ftp site ftp.alisa.com in the directory
pub/win-httpd, and documentation can be found at the URL
http://www.alisa.com/win-httpd/index.html .
SerWeb
A simple, effective server for Windows writtten by Gustavo
Estrella. Available by anonymous ftp from
winftp.cica.indiana.edu (or one of its mirror sites, such as
nic.switch.ch), as the file serweb03.zip, in the directory
/pub/pc/win3/winsock.
There is also a Windows NT version of SerWeb, available
by anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk as
/pub/serweb/serweb_i.zip.
WEB4HAM
Another Windows-based server, available by anonymous FTP
from ftp.informatik.uni-hamburg.de as
/pub/net/winsock/web4ham.zip.
OS2HTTPD
An OS/2 server, written by Frankie Fan. See the home
page (URL is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/kf/kfan/overview.html )
for details, or fetch the package by anonymous FTP from
ftp.netcom.com in the directory pub/kf/kfan.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.4: MSDOS and Novell Netware Servers
KA9Q
KA9Q NOS (nos11c.exe) is a internet server package for
DOS that includes HTTP and Gopher servers. It can be
obtained via anonymous FTP from one of the following
sites:
inorganic5.chem.ufl.edu
biochemistry.cwru.edu
GLACI-HTTPD
GLACI-HTTPD is a Netware Loadable Module which allows
a Novell NetWare server to become a World Wide Web
server (URL is http://www.glaci.com/info/glaci-httpd.html ).
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.5: VMS Servers
CERN HTTP for VMS
A port of the CERN server to VMS. Available at the URL
http://delonline.cern.ch/disk$user/duns/doc/vms/distribution.html .
Region 6 Threaded HTTP Server
A native VMS server which uses DECthreads(tm). This is a
potentially major performance advantage because VMS has a
high overhead for each process, which is a problem for the
frequently-forking NCSA and CERN servers that began life
under Unix. A multithreaded server avoids this overhead.
Available at the URL
http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html .
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.6: Amiga Servers
NCSA's Unix server has been ported to the Amiga, and is
bundled with the AMosaic browser. See the URL
http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html for details.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.7: VM/CMS Servers
A VM/CMS web server is available; see the URL
http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~troth/rickvmsw/rickvmsw.html for more
information. If you don't yet have a web browser to try this URL
with, check out the VM/CMS Browsers section.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.2.8: Yeah, but which is best?
To find out which server is best for your needs, you will want to
consult Paul Hoffman's Server Comparison Chart (URL is
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/chart.html ). That document is also
available by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com in the directory
pub/bo/boutell/faq.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.3: Producing HTML documents
HTML is the simple markup system used to create hypertext
documents. There are three ways to produce HTML documents:
writing them yourself, which is not a very difficult skill to acquire,
using an HTML editor, which assists in doing the above, and
converting documents in other formats to HTML. The following
three sections cover these possibilities in sequence.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.3.1: Writing HTML documents yourself
You can write an HTML document with any text editor. Try the
"source" button of your browser (or "save as" HTML) to look at
the HTML for a page you find particularly interesting. The odds
are that it will be a great deal simpler than you would expect. If
you're used to marking up text in any way (even red-pencilling
it), HTML should be rather intuitive.
A beginner's guide to HTML is available at the URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html .
You can also find a plain text version (at the URL
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ncsapubs/WWW/HTMLPrimer.txt) and a
compressed Postscript version (at the URL
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ncsapubs/WWW/HTMLPrimer.ps.Z). (Since the
latter two are FTP URLs, you can fetch them by hand using FTP
if you do not yet have a web browser.)
There is also an HTML primer by Nathan Torkington at the
URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-html.html .
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.3.2: HTML editors
Of course, most folks would still prefer to use a friendlier,
graphical editor. Some editors are WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get), or close to it; others simply assist you in writing
HTML by plugging in the desired markup tags for you from a
menu.
Fans of the EMACS editor can use EMACS and
html-helper-mode , an EMACS "mode" for HTML editing (URL
is http://www.reed.edu/~nelson/tools/).
There is also another Emacs HTML mode, html-mode.el (URL is
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/html/elisp/html-mode.el).
For Microsoft Windows users, there is an editor called HTML
Assistant with features to assist in the creation of HTML
documents. It can be had by anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.dal.ca in the directory /htmlasst/. Read the
README.1ST file in this directory for information on which files
to download.
ANT_HTML.DOT is a Word for Windows 6.0 template designed
to convert Word documents into HTML documents in a
WYSIWYG environment. It includes a demo version of the
ANT_PLUS utility, which converts HTML files to WYSIWYG.
ANT_PLUS also converts HTML files to ASCII, RTF, or any
other format possible in Word 6.0. Contact jswift@freenet.fsu.edu if
you need more information.
A WYSIWYG editor for the Web, SoftQuad HoTMetaL, is
available for downloading at NCSA and numerous other sites.
Many mirror sites exist; if you can't get through to one, try
another, don't give up! That's what mirror sites are for. (Also be
sure to use the copy closest to you geographically if possible.)
Hotmetal is available for both Sun Sparc systems and Windows
systems; note that Windows users need at least 6 megabytes of
free memory. (A 2-megabyte swap file should just barely do the
trick on a 4MB machine.)
Known mirrors:
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/html/hotmetal/
ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/SGML/HoTMetaL
ftp://sgml1.ex.ac.uk/SoftQuad
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/WWW/ncsa/html/hotmetal/
ftp://askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/infosystems/mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad
ftp://ftp.cs.concordia.ca/pub/www
You need a Sun SPARC or Microsoft Windows system and 6MB
of disk (6MB of RAM minimum for MS Windows; swap files
count). Other Unix systems may be supported by the time you
read this; have a look on one of the sites above.
Because it is context-sensitive, HoTMetaL guides users in creating
new HTML documents and in cleaning up old ones. A Publish
command changes appropriate SRC and HREF attributes from
local paths to http locations. For more information, FTP the
README file from the same directory, or send email to
hotmetal@sq.com. A HoTMetaL Pro commercially supported version
is available for purchase from SoftQuad and its resellers.
Also see Gabriel White's reviews of MS Windows HTML editors
(URL is http://werple.mira.net.au/%7Egabriel/web/html/editors/ ).
Another option, if you have an SGML editor, is to use it with
the HTML DTD (URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/DTDHeading.html ).
An editor for all X users: TkWWW (listed above under X
browsers) supports WYSIWYG HTML editing; and since it's a
browser, you can try out links immediately after creating them.
Another editor for X users: Phoenix (URL is
http://www.bsd.uchicago.edu/ftp/pub/phoenix/README.html ) is a fully
WYSIWYG HTML editor which insulates the user from direct
control of the HTML tags. Available by anonymous FTP from
www.bsd.uchicago.edu in the pub/phoenix subdirectory.
Also for X users, there is a package called htmltext which
supports WYSIWYG HTML editing. More information is available
at the URL http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/njw/htmltext/htmltext.html .
For Macintosh users, there is a near-WYSIWYG package called
HTML Editor (URL is
http://dragon.acadiau.ca:1667/~giles/HTML_Editor).
ANT_HTML is a Word for the Macintosh template designed to
convert Word documents into HTML documents in a WYSIWYG
environment. It includes a demo version of the ANT_PLUS utility,
which converts HTML files to WYSIWYG. ANT_PLUS also
converts HTML files to ASCII, RTF, or any other format possible
in Word. At the time of this writing it was scheduled to have
been released on the Macintosh (it has long been available for
Windows). Contact jswift@freenet.fsu.edu for more information.
Also for Macintosh users, the BBEdit HTML extensions allow the
BBEdit and BBEdit Lite text editors for the Macintosh to
conveniently edit HTML documents. (URL is
http://www.uji.es/bbedit-html-extensions.html .) You can also obtain
the extensions package by anonymous ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu as info-mac/bbedit-html-ext-b3.hqx.
There is an alternative BBEdit extension package available as well
(URL is http://www.york.ac.uk/~ld11/BBEditTools.html
). it is available by FTP from ftp.york.ac.uk in the directory
/pub/users/ld11/BBEdit_HTML_Tools.sea.hqx.
NCSA's List of Filters and Editors, for which the URL is
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/faq-software.html#editors,
mentions several editors, including two for MS Windows. In some
cases, the "editor" amounts to a set of macros for an existing
word processor, which can provide a near-WYSIWYG environment.
Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters;
certain operating systems won't allow mixed case on the command
line, or will only allow it if it is quoted (VMS), so if you are
launching Lynx or another client and specifying a URL at the
command line, try quoting the URL in double-quotes ("URL").
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.3.3: Converting other formats to HTML
There is a collection of filters for converting your existing
documents (in TeX and other non-HTML formats) into HTML
automatically, including filters that can allow more or less
WYSIWYG editing using various word processors:
Rich Brandwein and Mike Sendall's List at CERN (URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Tools/Filters.html ).
(Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters;
certain operating systems such as VMS require you to quote
mixed-case URLs when launching a borwser from the command
line. This is NOT a bug in the browser.)
There is also a Word for Windows template for writing HTML
documents, available at the URL
http://www.gatech.edu/word_html/release.htm .
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.3.4: Checking your HTML for errors
Tools to validate your HTML documents (check them for errors)
are available. There is a form at the URL
http://www.hal.com/%7Econnolly/html-test/service/validation-form.html
which will check HTML documents for errors according to the
latest specification; note that you are encouraged to set up the
program on your own system if you make heavy use of the form.
There is also a tool which will check the links in your documents
for links to nonexistent resources, such as pages that have moved
(URL is http://wsk.eit.com/wsk/dist/doc/admin/webtest/verify_links.html ).
Also try weblint (URL is
http://www.khoros.unm.edu/staff/neilb/weblint.html ), a Perl script that
checks your HTML for errors; you can even try it out over the
web through an HTML form. The script is available by
anonymous FTP from ftp.khoros.unm.edu in the directory
pub/perl/www.
Another such tool is htmlchek (URL is:
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh/htmlchek.html ), which checks
HTML documents for errors, creates a cross-reference,
automatically expands entities (such as European characters) to
their proper HTML form, and performs other useful services.
htmlchek is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.buffalo.edu in
the directory pub/htmlchek.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.4: How do I publicize my work?
There are several things you can do to publicize your new HTML
server or other offering:
Post to comp.infosystems.www.announce. PLEASE READ
THE CHARTER POSTING FIRST. In general, always read
a newsgroup first to familiarize yourself before posting to it.
Submit it to the NCSA What's New Page at the URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html
(see the page for details on how to submit your listing!).
Post it to the newsgroup comp.infosystems.announce. Please
read the group first to get a feel for the contents. You
should not post to comp.infosystems.www.users,.misc,.providers,
etc., but if you feel compelled to do so, please choose .misc
as announcements are of interest to both providers and
users (and those who wear both hats).
Submit it to the maintainers of various catalogs, such as
the WWW Virtual Library (at the URL
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
) and the ALIWEB index (at the URL
http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html ).
Read Gareth Rees' guide to publishing on the World Wide
Web. (URL is http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/gdr11/publish.html ).
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.5: Can I buy space on an existing server?
Yes, you can. A list of sites offering WWW space for lease is
available (at the URL
http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/www/leasing.shtml ).
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.6: How fast does my net connection need to be?
The following response to this very-frequently-asked-question was
provided by Mike Meyer (mwm@contessa.phone.net).
The answer is "It depends." What it depends on is what kind
of things you want to provide on your server. Here are some
rules of thumb to use when deciding what kind of connection
you need for your server.
The first rule of thumb is:
Don't worry about simultaneous access.
Unless you have a very large site, simultaneous access is not
a problem. If you have a very large site, you need as much
bandwidth as you can afford. There is a bit more about this
below.
The second rule of thumb is:
It should take at most 5 seconds to send a page.
The five second rule dates from command line days, when
that was about how long people would wait before getting
impatient with the system. It seems like a reasonable number
to use now.
Since external images/audio/etc. are somewhat exceptional,
allow more time for them. If you think they should have the
same restrictions as above, buy the bandwidth your site will
need to do so. However, the rule of thumb for external
images/audio/etc is:
It should take at most 30 seconds to send an external file.
Given these rules, it's pretty straightforward to work out how
large an HTML page and external files can be. At least, it's
easy after you simplify things by ignoring IP overhead on the
line, compression on modem lines, and anything that's less
than 10% of the total (or even a little bit more than 10%).
The one simplification not to ignore is the multiple packet
round-trips it takes to get data flowing through an HTTP
channel. For modem lines, this is nearly a second for each
HTTP connection, which is significant. For leased lines, it's
more like .1 or .2 seconds, which is not significant.
On a 14.4 line assumed to be sending 1.4K bytes of
data/second, with a 1 second startup, you get 4 * 1.4 or 5.6K
of HTML. If you want to include a single inline image,
that's 2 seconds of startup, so you're down to 3 * 1.4 or
4.2K of HTML + image. This means smallish HTML pages,
and simple inline images. For external files, you get 29 * 1.4
or 40K, which is still a small image. If you have a 28.8
line, you get to double those figures; for a 9600 line, figure
2/3rds of that size.
On a 56K leased line assumed to be sending 5K/second, you
get 25K of HTML, or mixed HTML/data. For external
images, it's 150K. That should cover any reasonable HTML
document, and small to medium external files. An MPEG
movie might be a bit much.
With a T1 line assumed to be sending 150K/second, you get
750K of HTML, or 4.5 megabytes in an external file. Barring
very large animations, this should be sufficient for anything
you want to serve. More would be faster, but it also gets
drastically more expensive.
Given the above guidelines, let's look at simultaneous access
again. Under the worst case conditions, you're using all of
your line for HTML pages, each of which takes 5 seconds to
send, so your server is sending 12 pages a minute, or 720
pages an hour, or 17,000 pages a day (pages, not accesses;
each inline image in a page generates an access, unless the
client cached it). This makes you one of the busier sites on
the web. While you'll have contention problems before you
get to this point, anything but a modem connection will be
sending most pages in a small fraction of five seconds, which
should leave plenty of bandwidth with no contention. If you
have this kind of access rates on a modem line, you should
seriously consider upgrading your connection.
The bottom line on simultaneous access is that the WWW
server is more likely to have contention with other uses of
the line than with itself. Since I don't know what else you
use your line for, I can't factor it in. You'll have to consider
that issue yourself.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
There are really two issues here: how to indicate in HTML that
you want an image to be clickable, and how to configure your
server to do something with the clicks returned by Mosaic,
Chimera, and other clients capable of delivering them.
You can read about image maps and the NCSA server at the
URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/admin/Imagemap.html .
Using imagemaps requires that you create a map file; you can do
this by hand or with a WYSIWYG tool.
VERY IMPORTANT: Creating imagemaps requires a real web
server (not an FTP server) and a cooperative web server
administrator. It is not usually as simple as wrapping a link
around an IMG SRC tag and adding the ISMAP directive; the
server must also be told about the map file, and the way to
accomplish this varies from server to server. So read your server
documentation, and don't waste time making maps before making
sure you have the necessary tools to deliver them.
Mapedit
Mapedit (URL is:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/mapedit/mapedit.html
) is a WYSIWYG imagemap editing tool for Microsoft
Windows and the X Window System.
MapMaker
For users of John Bradley's xv image display software for
the X Window System, Mapmaker can turn the miniature
images created by xv's Visual Schnauzer into an imagemap.
This is useful if you would like to make an entire directory
of images available (but note that you should also make
textual links to allow those with text- based browsers to
download the images for external viewing). (URL is:
http://icg.stwing.upenn.edu:80/~mengwong/mapmaker.html )
WebMap
On the Macintosh, you may want to use WebMap (URL is
ftp://ftp.uwtc.washington.edu/pub/Mac/Network/WWW ). . It
produces both NCSA and CERN-compatible maps, which
can also be used with MacImagemap and a Macintosh-based
server (MacImagemap is found in the same directory).
Alternatively, you may want to use MacMapMaker, also
available from
ftp://ftp.uwtc.washington.edu/pub/Mac/Network/WWW (the same
directory).
Tkmapedit
For Unix systems and other systems on which the Tk/Tcl
language toolkit has been installed, Tkmapedit provides a
WYSIWYG imagemap editor which is capable of directly
testing links if the tkWWW web browser is available.
Available by anonymous FTP from the TCL archive on
ftp.aud.alcatel.com.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't load a new page?
Such links are useful when a form is intended to perform some
action on the server machine without sending new information to
the client, or when a user has clicked in an undefined area in an
image map; these are just two possibilities.
Rob McCool of NCSA provided the following wisdom on the
subject:
Yechezkal-Shimon Gutfreund (sg04@gte.com) wrote:
: Ok, here is another bizzare request from me:
: I am currently running scripts which I "DO NOT" want to return
: any visible result. That is, not text/plain, not text/HTML, not
: image/gif. The entire results are the side effects of the
: script and nothing should be returned to the viewer.
: It would be nice to have an internally supported null viewer
: so that I could do this, more "cleanly" (ok, ok, I hear your groans).
HTTP now supports a response code of 204, which is no
operation. Some browsers such as Mosaic/X 2.* support it. To use
it, make your script a nph script and output an HTTP/1.0 204
header. Something like:
HTTP/1.0 204 No response Server: Myscript/NCSA
httpd 1.1
(You can learn more about nph scripts from the NCSA server
documentation at the URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs.)
Essentially they are scripts that handle their own HTTP response
codes.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out forms?
Writing an HTML form is easy, but the form doesn't accomplish
anything until you write a CGI program to interpret the results
on the server side! For more information, see section 5.7.14.
See the section on email forms for a simple solution to the most
commonly desired form.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.3.1: How can I create hidden fields in forms (keeping state)?
Use INPUT TYPE=hidden. An example:
By now, most browsers can handle the hidden type, but understand
that some browsers will fail to hide the field (and probably
confuse the user). Note that "hidden" doesn't mean "secret"; the
user can always click on "view source".
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.3.2: How can users send me email through their browsers?
There are two ways:
Using a mailto: URL
You can simply create a link which looks like this:
Send Me Mail
This works great for browsers that support the mailto: URL.
Perhaps 80% of web users will be able to use such a link.
But not all browsers support it.
Installing an email form
If you have access to the server's configuration files, or if
your server administrator permits users to create their own
CGI scripts, you can create a form which sends mail to
you from any browser that supports forms. I've written a
simple email forms package (URL is:
http://siva.cshl.org/email/index.html ), which does it in ANSI
C. There is also a package written in Perl, known as the
WWW Mailto Gateway (URL is
http://www.mps.ohio-state.edu/mailto/mailto_info.html ).
GetComments (URL is:
http://everest.cs.ucdavis.edu/~hoagland/getcomments.html) is a
more general package, also written in Perl, which can
handle many different types of comment forms.
If you want to learn how these forms actually work, see
section 5.7.14.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.4: How do I comment an HTML document?
Use the tag. Note that comments
do not nest, and the sequence "--" may not appear inside a
comment except as part of the closing --> tag. (It's officially
allowed, but some browsers won't handle it properly.)
You should not try to use this to "comment out" HTML that
would otherwise be shown to the user, since some browsers
(notably Mosaic) will still pay attention to tags inside the
comment and close it prematurely.
Thanks to Joe English for clearing up this issue.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5.7.5: How can I create decent-looking tables and stop using
...
?
Tables are a standard feature in HTML Level 3, a new version
of HTML. Unfortunately, they are at present implemented only by
the latest NCSA Mosaic versions and the Viola and Emacs-W3
browsers, to my knowledge. In addition, most implementations are
incomplete. In some implementations, at the time of this writing,
text in tables cannot be selected and/or cannot be a link.
However, there is a way to use HTML Level 3 tables now and
convert them automatically to HTML, allowing you to design
proper tables and install those pages directly when table support
arrives in the majority of clients. You can do this using the
html+tables package, by Brooks Cutter (bcutter@paradyne.com),
which is available for anonymous ftp from sunsite.unc.edu in the
directory pub/packages/infosystems/WWW/tools/html+tables.shar. This
package requires the shell language Perl, which is primarily used
on Unix systems but is also available for other systems (such as
MSDOS machines). html+tables accepts HTML Level 3 and outputs
html using the