Chapter W4. An Internet session

Chapter W4. An Internet session

*Connect or not connect, this is the problem!*
*- Anonymous*
Goals for this chapter: Reading e-mails Sending email How to download your emails while traveling Internet keywords and Web shortcuts Everyday browsing The "bookmarks" How to control changed sites Subscribing to "news" groups Downloading programs with the "Midnight Commander", KDE and GNOME A manual FTP session	rpm packages covered in this chapter: httpd (apache) netscape (netscape)

An Internet session

In nowadays connect to the Internet is simple and inmmediate. Everyone including young people know how to connect and browse the Web. Two or three clicks and all the world is there.

A world of information, including libraries, like LOC (Library of Congress), or the NewYork Public Library, Princeton University, Yale University, Berkeley and other available by telnet,

In this chapter we will resume some enhancements to know to work better, as well as some other "old style" modes to download files using FTP services, very important in this UNIX re-birth days, or Linux days.

In an Internet session is possible to use: http, telnet, ftp, gopher, finger and other network protocols.

Reading e-mails

e-mail, or electronic mail, are messages that travels on the net, between people. You can reach any type of organizations, or just friends.

When, your Web server running sendmail (or qmail or other mail program) receive your e-mails, the program will save the files in the directory: "/var/spool/mail"

You can see here an example:

These files are created in "append" mode, therefore a new e-mail will be added at the end of the previous.

There are different modes to read these mails:

Using "mail". Simply run mail and the actual mail messages will be readed and saved locally, in "mbox" file, in append mode.
Using "pine", "elm" or other similar programs

Using X Window, and the Netscape Communicator, we can use the "Messenger". (You need to activate the POP3 service in the network configuration).

For example, working with KDE and the Communicator we can see the dialog:

You need simply to click the button, and check your mail.

You can also fix a number of minutes for an automatic check (or download).

Sending email

To send an e-mail is very simply. For example with the Netscape Messenger, you need to hit the "New Message" button. Then, will appears a mask similar to the following:

You can choose the e-mail address from the address book ...

or if you receive an email you can simply hit the "Reply" button.

How to download your emails while traveling

When you travel to another city, is possible that your ISP is not present. However, if you can find an Internet connection everything may be solved.

The first things to understand are the "Incomming Mail Server" and "Outgoing Mail Server".

If you are connected to the Web, your Incomming Mail server, is the same server present in your company or in your ISP!

Here we have, "mail.futuretg.com"

To "download" (or to read) the mail, you need only to fix the server and know the password. This is very interesting because, you may be "sales", "info", "peter", "mike" ... if you know them passwords. Protect your passwords to prevent this.

To send e-mails, is the same, you need to fix the Outgoing mail server.

Some things can change depending on the Internet connection type you have.

For example, if the only mode to connect is using a modem, to connect to a local ISP, dialing a local phone number. Then when you change city your emails will have the local Outgoing SMTP Server.

If you travel frequently, amy be important to choose a nationwide Internet Service Provider.

Everyday browsing

Generally, everyday you receive some emails and browse new sites fro your needs or your curiosity.

You can find URL (Uniform Resource Locator), like this:

http://login.netscape.com:80/iiop/UReg2/mailback/unconfirmed?U2_ENDURL=http://radio.netscape.com/radio/radiosell2.html&U2_NEW_ENDURL=http://radio.netscape.com/radio/radiosell2.html&U2_EXITURL=http://home.netscape.com&U2_FAILURL=&U2_SOURCE=RADIO&UID=Futuretg&EMAIL=gorlando@futuretg.com&U2_CS=iso-8859-1&U2_LA=en

Like we explain in Chapter 12 in BASE Course as in Chapter 3, we can have any type of connection using Netscape

if possible also to know the actual earthquake situation in real-time:

[root@heaven /root]# finger quake@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov
[gldfs.cr.usgs.gov]
Login name: quake In real life: see Ray Buland
Directory: /home/quake Shell: /home/quake/run_quake
Last login Mon Nov 2 18:41 on ttyp0 from mhako.production
No unread mail
Plan:
The following near-real-time Earthquake Bulletin is provided by the National
Earthquake Information Service (NEIS) of the U. S. Geological Survey as part of
a cooperative project of the Council of the National Seismic System. For
a description of the earthquake parameters listed below, the availability of
additional information, and our publication criteria, please finger
qk_info@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov.
Updated as of Tue Nov 3 11:00:15 MST 1998.

DATE-(UTC)-TIME    LAT    LON     DEP   MAG Q COMMENTS
yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss   deg.   deg.     km
98/11/01 02:32:56 16.18S 70.53W 33.0 4.6Mb B SOUTHERN PERU
98/11/01 06:26:08 39.73N 120.59W   5.0 3.6Ml A NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
98/11/01 08:21:38 40.41N 124.16W 11.5 3.0Md    NEAR COAST OF NORTHERN CALIF.
98/11/01 09:28:52 34.31N 116.85W   6.1 2.9Ml    SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
98/11/01 11:42:17 54.54N 164.50W 73.0 4.7Mb B UNIMAK ISLAND REGION
98/11/01 13:58:24 43.83N 111.03W   5.0 3.2Ml A EASTERN IDAHO
98/11/01 19:13:17 41.72N 141.21E 100.0 4.0Mb C HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
98/11/02 03:50:31 19.50S 177.89E 33.0 5.3Ms B SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
98/11/02 10:16:06 31.93N 115.77W   6.0 3.9Ml    BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
98/11/02 14:24:01 27.93N 112.94W 10.0 4.3Mb C BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
98/11/02 15:53:36 33.17N 115.59W   4.4 3.9Ml    SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
98/11/02 20:27:52 51.19N 176.31W 33.0 5.0Mb A ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS.
98/11/02 20:38:06 51.20N 176.16W 33.0 4.7Mb B ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS.
98/11/02 22:49:22 36.84N 120.69W   0.6 2.8Md    CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
98/11/02 23:10:59 43.73N 147.58E 60.7 5.2Mb A KURIL ISLANDS
98/11/03 04:32:06 50.71N 179.16W 33.0 4.2Mb C ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS.
98/11/03 04:46:03 40.27N 124.33W   9.5 3.6Ml    NEAR COAST OF NORTHERN CALIF.
98/11/03 05:09:15 38.82N 122.83W   0.3 2.8Md    NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
98/11/03 07:02:34 52.99N 167.85W 80.0 4.3Mb B FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
98/11/03 07:06:35 22.02N 121.29E 33.0 4.7Mb C TAIWAN REGION
98/11/03 07:53:27 53.49N 34.94W 10.0 4.7Mb B NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
[root@heaven /root]#

The "bookmarks"

Netscape as well as other browsers offers the possibility to save "favorite" Web sites at bookmarks it.

This is the standard "Edit Bookmark" windows in Netscape!

Each bookmark have its properties: like name, location, last visited and Add date.

You can check all the bookmarks if you choose the entry: "View" -> "Update Bookmarks".

How to control changed sites

On the Web there are Mind-It URL Minder

This site check everyday the list of URL that you add. If some one of these URL changes, you will receive an email from the Web "robot".

Internet keywords and Web shortcuts

The Internet offers from some months two systems for a quick identification and browsing. These two systems are:

Internet Keywords
Internet Shortcuts

Check the KDE konqueror, "Enable Browsing" Entry.

The Internet Keywords works as follows.

Suppose you Enter in your Browser the word: "Bank of America". If this word is an Internet Keyword in some Internet search engine, automatically your browser will go to the the "Bank of America" Web site, http://www.bofa.com.

In true, not all browsers accept any keyword. This depend is the keyword belong to the Search Engine you enter as default, or not. For example, if you run this word and your Search Engine is MSN, probaly you will not

Therefore the Internet keywords criteria is as follows:

If the word you enter is recognized in the Search Engine, the browser will move to the Web site, otherwise
happens a simple "search" for the word in the Search engine.

The second type are "Web Shortcut". For example try to hit "av" inside "konqueror" ... if the konqueror is well configurated you willl move to Altavista.com

Subscribing to "news" groups

The UseNet, was the system to share news and opinions about "anything". There are about 120,000 different groups available to share any type of information.

After you add the "news" server. (Is also possible install a company news server using your Web Server), you need to click on the news label on the left.

To add new groups you can simply add the in the Newsgroup entry and check it. After you choose your newsgroups you may hit "OK", and all the groups will appears on your list.

Downloading programs with the "Midnight Commander", KDE and GNOME

The Midnight Commander, "mc", the new graphical commander, "gmc" or the Konqueror support the FTP Protocol. With the Konqueror is possible to drag-and-drop between local or remote FTP sites.

Also Netscape support ftp protocol, and you can access internally any webstation.

However, is very important that you "clean the Netscape cache". Otherwise any user can read the remote system hierarchy.

A manual FTP session

From the first UNIX days, FTP was the system created specially to download files from the Web.

These services works from the localhost to the Web as well as from the localhost to the Intranet. We can connect to the Intranet like anonymous FTP.

[root@www /root]# ftp world
Connected to world.futuretg.com.
220 world.futuretg.com FTP server (Version wu-2.5.0(1) Mon Feb 21 16:21:03 MST 2000) ready.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type
Name (world:root): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 6
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         1024 Jan 12 11:00 .
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         1024 Jan 12 11:00 ..
d--x--x--x   2 root     root         1024 Jan 12 11:00 bin
d--x--x--x   2 root     root         1024 Jan 12 11:00 etc
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 Feb 17 2000 lib
dr-xr-sr-x   2 root     ftp          1024 Feb 17 2000 pub
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd pub
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 2
dr-xr-sr-x   2 root     ftp          1024 Feb 17 2000 .
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         1024 Jan 12 11:00 ..
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bye
221-You have transferred 0 bytes in 0 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 1199 bytes in 2 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on world.futuretg.com.
221 Goodbye.
[root@www /root]#

We can connect also for example to RedHat Website.

[root@www /root]# ftp ftp.redhat.com
Connected to ftp.redhat.com.
220 "Red Hat FTP server ready. All transfers are logged, please have a nice day."
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type
Name (ftp.redhat.com:root): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
230-Please read the file README
230- it was last modified on Tue Jan 25 08:51:37 2000 - 342 days ago
230-Please read the file README.roughcuts
230- it was last modified on Fri Jan 21 17:32:20 2000 - 346 days ago
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 48
d--x------   2 root     root         4096 Nov 3 17:39 .private
drwxrwxrwx   4 root     root         4096 Jan 2 00:00 .snapshot
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         1216 Jan 25 2000 README
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          774 Jan 21 2000 README.roughcuts
drwxr-xr-x 18 aic      aic          4096 Aug 10 16:28 aic
drwxr-xr-x   8 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:28 contrib
-r--r--r--   1 root     root          178 Jul 31 14:35 du-s.txt
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:28 large-fd
drwxr-xr-x   9 rawhide rawhide      4096 Dec 22 18:30 rawhide
drwxrwxr-x 22 root     root         4096 Dec 7 21:57 redhat
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:28 sound
drwxrwsr-x   6 root     redhat       4096 Dec 1 00:12 up2date
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd redhat
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 3060
drwxr-xr-x   9 19387    root         4096 Nov 17 15:41 beta
drwxrwsr-x   7 root     redhat       4096 Nov 27 19:25 ccvs
drwxr-xr-x   9 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:28 code
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:32 cpan
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           10 Dec 1 01:39 current -> redhat-7.0
-r--r--r--   1 root     root          355 Jul 31 14:52 du-s.txt
drwxrwxr-x   2 redhat   root         4096 Aug 10 16:32 edk
drwxrwsr-x   7 root     redhat       4096 Dec 7 22:24 gnupro
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         4096 Dec 13 03:57 ia64
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root      3040582 Sep 22 13:37 ls-lR.gz
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:28 news
drwxr-xr-x 16 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:29 old-releases
drwxrwsr-x   7 root     root         4096 Nov 13 19:34 powertools
drwxr-xr-x   8 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:31 redhat-6.2
drwxrwxr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:32 redhat-6.2-de
drwxrwxr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:33 redhat-6.2-es
drwxrwxr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:32 redhat-6.2-fr
drwxrwxr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:33 redhat-6.2-it
drwxrwxr-x   6 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:34 redhat-6.2-ja
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           20 Dec 1 01:42 redhat-7.0 -> ./releases/guinness/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         4096 Sep 21 22:02 releases
drwxrwsr-x   8 root     root         4096 Aug 10 16:30 support
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root         4096 Sep 30 00:12 tux
drwxrwsr-x 27 redhat   redhat       4096 Nov 1 15:13 updates
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd redhat-7.0
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 32
drwxr-xr-x   7 root     root         4096 Nov 17 17:41 DMA
drwxr-xr-x   6 19387    root         4096 Nov 24 04:12 SRPMS
drwxr-xr-x   4 19387    root         4096 Nov 23 23:58 alpha
drwxr-xr-x   4 19387    root         4096 Sep 21 21:18 doc
drwxr-xr-x   5 19387    root         4096 Nov 2 15:16 i386
drwxr-xr-x   2 19387    root         4096 Nov 24 04:18 iso
drwxr-xr-x   5 19387    root         4096 Nov 24 04:12 powertools
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           18 Nov 30 02:43 updates -> ../../updates/7.0/
drwxr-xr-x   4 19387    root         4096 Oct 11 22:22 upgrade
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd iso
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           32 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-alpha-SRPMS.iso -> ../SRPMS/iso/7.0-alpha-SRPMS.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           32 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-alpha-disc1.iso -> ../alpha/iso/7.0-alpha-disc1.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           32 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-alpha-disc2.iso -> ../alpha/iso/7.0-alpha-disc2.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           42 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-alpha-powertools.iso -> ../powertools/iso/7.0-alpha-powertools.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           33 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-docs-8bit.iso -> ../doc/iso/7.0-i386-docs-8bit.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           41 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-powertools.iso -> ../powertools/iso/7.0-i386-powertools.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           33 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-respin-SRPMS.iso -> ../SRPMS/iso/7.0-respin-SRPMS.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           32 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-respin-disc1.iso -> ../i386/iso/7.0-respin-disc1.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           32 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-respin-disc2.iso -> ../i386/iso/7.0-respin-disc2.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 19387    root           26 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-i386-upgrade.iso -> ../upgrade/iso/upgrade.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           34 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-ja-i386-SRPMS.iso -> ../SRPMS/iso/7.0-ja-i386-SRPMS.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           33 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-ja-i386-disc1.iso -> ../i386/iso/7.0-ja-i386-disc1.iso
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           33 Nov 30 02:43 7.0-ja-i386-disc2.iso -> ../i386/iso/7.0-ja-i386-disc2.iso
-rw-r--r--   1 19387    root          739 Nov 24 04:25 MD5SUM
226 Transfer complete.
ftp>

If you want only the Disc 1 and Disc 2 (included in FTLinuxCourse Professional) you can dowload one for time and then close the session. Otherwise if you want all
CDs, you can run the following commands:

ftp> prompt off
Interactive mode off.
ftp> mget *
local: 7.0-alpha-SRPMS.iso remote: 7.0-alpha-SRPMS.iso
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for 7.0-alpha-SRPMS.iso (680855552 bytes).

The reader can review Chapter 12 in BASE course.

Exercises

Send some email with mail locally, and check the directory how the files are appen one to others.
Copy a file listing your favorite links on the Web to the file "/root/.netscape/bookmarks.html" and then choose "Update Bookmarks"

Tests

Is possible to search in bookmarks ?
The bookmarks is a simple HTML file or is an internal list?
What is the dir where local and remote mail are saved ?
Is possible to finger a remote Web site?
Is possible to use Netscape to login and browse local Intranet sites ?
Is possible to use mc to connect to remote FTP sites?
Is possible to use an HTML file instead the bookmarks?
Is possible to use the Netscape bookmarks checking any HTML file ?
Is possible to telnet a Library ?
What happens if you does not remove the cache dir inside netscape, trying to login a remote website ?

Read the answers to the exercises.
Check the Interactive Exam Cram WebMaster:

Internet Resources for this Chapter.