In most cases you will get a response in a few minutes. For systems that wait to off-peak hours to send responses you may have to wait a day.
Here are some more hints:
o Most automated systems respond to the single command "help".
o People change their directory systems around everyday it seems. If the commands given don't work, try to locate what you want by Archie (see below) before requesting it by mail.
o The Double quotes around some commands aren't part of the command itself (so don't type them!).
With that advice, here's the list... .
[10] The CPET (Catalog of Projects in Electronic Text) supplies information about E-text archives for scholars. They have an online database. For detailed instructions, send the message:
connect guvax.acc.georgetown.edu cd cpet_projects_in_electronic_text get cpet_user_guide.txt
to "[email protected]". [This is a service that provides Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) by E-mail. See next entry].
Anonymous FTP reference for CPET user's guide:
"guvax.acc.georgetown.edu:/cpet_projects_in_electronic_text/cpet_user_gu ide.txt"
[9] Instructions for using Archie by Mail and FTP by Mail.
Archie is a lookup service for finding software or documents in Anonymous FTP archives on the Internet. Anonymous FTP is a method for making materials on certain computers available to the public. Anyone is allowed to log in with the username "anonymous" You give your real name as the password. Anonymous FTP is not available if you just have E-mail, not a full Internet connection.
To help E-mail users access Anonymous FTP archives, an FTP by Mail server has been set up at decwrl.dec.com. It will send you materials you find using Archie. Binary files (pictures and programs) are encoded as text files using the programs "btoa" or "uuencode". You need these freeware programs if you want to get anything besides text files, i.e.
ASCII.
A. To get started with Archie, send the message "help" to "[email protected]". There are many Archie servers around the world. Any Archie will give you a complete list.
B. To get started with FTP Mail, send the message
help quit
to "[email protected]".
[8] A list of book-length Public Domain texts Produced by Project Gutenberg.
You may either get these texts from the Almanac server at "oes.orst.edu"
or direct from Project Gutenberg at "mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu".
Send message "help" to "[email protected]". After reading the guide, send the message "send gutenberg catalog". To get an E-text by mail (e.g. _Alice in Wonderland_), send the message:
send etext alice
To see the contents of project gutenberg archivesj, send the message
connect mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu cd etext/articles get index quit
to "[email protected]".
To get the actual texts,
connect mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu cd etext/etext93 get quit
Anonymous FTP Archive references:
oes.orst.edu:/pub/data/etext
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu:/etext/articles (general info)
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu:/etext/etext93 (the texts)
[7] A list of E-mail mailing lists, posted to the "Frequently Asked Questions" or FAQ part of the Usenet newsgroups.
A typical mailing list works like this: to join, say, a mailing list on politics, you send the request "subscribe" to "politics- [email protected]". Thereafter, any message sent to "[email protected]" will send you message to all members of the list. You get all the postings from other members as well [The Whitehouse list on politics is a fake example].
Aside: Usenet newsgroup FAQ's are archived at "rtfm.mit.edu". They cover every conceivable subject (but are especially good with computers). To access the archive by E-mail, send the message "help" to "[email protected]". For an index of materials available, send the message "index".
Here are the specific commands for getting the Mailing Lists:
send mail/mailing-lists/part1 send mail/mailing-lists/part2 send mail/mailing-lists/part3 send mail/mailing-lists/part4 send mail/mailing-lists/part5
to "[email protected]".
Other good publications in the same location:
A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing_Lists:
send social-newsgroups/part1
List of Periodic Informational Postings:
send periodic-postings/part1
(six parts).
For a more complete list of FAQs, send the commands:
send usenet/news.answers/index send usenet/news.announce.newusers/index
Anonymous FTP archive reference:
rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers; and rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet-by-group/news.announce.newusers.