AMERICA ONLINE AnswerMan Conference Tues., January 23, 1996 9pm E.T. Host: Kevin Savetz (Netanswers) Topic: Gopher Nuts & Bolts Copyright 1996 America Online, Inc. ______________________________________ Netanswers: Thanks for coming everyone! "Gopher Nuts & Bolts." Curious about "Gopher"? Gopher is a very usful--but often overlooked--Internet tool. During this session, the AnswerMan will tell you everything you need to know about gopher--what it is, how to access it, how to search it, and why you'd want to. Whether you're a seasoned Web surfer or an Internet beginner, you'll learn something this hour. There is life beyond the Web--so come burrow around with the gopher. Netanswers: Gopher is an Internet tools that has been around for a long time--several years. Gopher's popularity has waned quite a bit in the past months, since the Web has "taken over" the Internet. But there's still a lot of good stuff available via gopher--if you're looking for information on the Internet, you shouldn't forget to check out Gopher as well as the Web search tools. Netanswers: Gopher is a menu-driven system for searching Internet resources--it presents you with a series of menus, which you can click on to reveal documents, pictures, and more menus. Gopher sites look different than Web pages; the Web uses "hypertext" (a free form system, usually heavier on the graphics) while gopher uses plainer menus. Netanswers : There are several thousands gopher servers, many still activly maintained. Curiously, none of the Internet's search tools (like WebCrawler, Lycos, Inktomi...) search "gopherspace" (information available via gopher); they only search the Web. So you need to make an extra effort to search gopherspace, but it is often worth it. Netanswers: The tool for searching gopherspace is called "VERONICA." VERONICA is accessed within Gopher--it's basically a menu item that says "Search gopherspace." You pick it, type in some search words, and VERONICA magically creates a new Gopher menu for you; one with pointers to the "hits" on your topic. Netanswers: You can start playing with Gopher by going to Keyword: GOPHER -- but the powers that be at AOL tell me that that keyword is going away soon. It's not really needed anymore--you see, AOL's Web browser can also access Gopher. If you've ever paid attention to Intenet URLs (site addresses) you've noticed that many of them begin with http://. Netanswers: This indicates you're accessing a Web site. Gopher sites, on the other hand, have URLs that begin with gopher:// -- as long as you know the URL, your Web browser can access the gopher site. (If you don't have the Web browser, you can go to Keyword: UPGRADE to get it. If you don't know if you have it, try to go to Keyword: WEBCRAWLER -- if you see a message telling you that you have no browser, than you have no browser :-) Netanswers: In a minute I'll talk about using VERONICA. Before I continue, are there any questions RELATING TO GOPHER? If you have one, type "?" and wait until you are called on. CJ Ellen: We are putting Protocol in effect. If you have a question, type ?. Type ! for a comment, and wait to be called on, just like school. Comments to the present question/statement are taken before "new" questions. Please type your question or comment into your chat buffer so that you can be ready to go when called on. If you can't finish what you are saying in the number of lines available, add ... to the end of your phrase to show you are not finished. CJ Ellen: Queue = Seitch95 Seitch95: Do these "surfed" pages get saved automatically, routinely to your hard drive? CJ Ellen: We are discussing Gopher tonight. Other questions will be taken at the end of the hour. Or you can go to Chat About the Web in the People Connection. Thanks. Netanswers: Seith..when you cruise the Web or Gopher,the Web browser keeps a small "cache" of recently-looked at files. That way, if you return to those files in the near future, they will already be on your hard disk. But the browser doesn't fill your hard disk with junk; the cache is a small temporary holding space. GDiefentha: Will Gopher help me find a specific listserv? No, but there is a Web page that will--the list of publicly accessible mailing lists at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/ RReinh3466: Excuse me but I just downloaded AOL 2.5 and I can't get on the Web? Netanswers: RR--1) You should be flogged for not using protocol. :-) 2) You need to INSTALL the new version, and make sure you are using it. CJ Ellen : ::handing Netanswers flogging iron:: heh Netanswers: *grin* Netanswers: OK, back to VERONICA. With Web search tools there is only one each of many tools--one WebCrawler, one Lycos, etc. It's sort of the opposite with Gopher--there is only one search tool, but there are many "copies" of it available on the Internet. So if one VERONICA is busy, you can use another one. Netanswers: If you point your Web browser to http://www.cs.unh.edu:70/1/links/veronica, you will find a list of all the VERONICA servers out there. You'll see headers like "Search GopherSpace (veronica) via NYSERNet" and "Search GopherSpace (veronica) via PSInet." These are just different incarnations of the veronica program, at different locations. Netanswers: Pick one--any one--and click on it. You'll see a box where you can type some search words. That's easy enough--enter the words you're looking for. You can use "boolean" operators, which means you can enter "Punk music" or "music AND punk" or "music NOT folk" or even "music and (punk or folk)". Netanswers: VERONICA will search gopherspace and show you any hits. Back to http://www.cs.unh.edu:70/1/links/veronica - the VERONICA index page. You'll notice two types of searches: Search GopherSpace and Search Gopher Directory Titles. Search Gopherspace will search all the menu names and all the names of documents available via gopher. For instance, if there was a menu called "Music" and under it a document called "The origins of American folk music", this search would find both of those. Netanswers: The second kind of search, Search Gopher Directory Titles, only looks at the menu names, not the names of documents. So it would "see" the "Music" menu but not the document. VERONICA only searches the names of documents, not the contents of the documents themselves. There could be a great article out there on folk music; but if it had a lousy title like "My Term Paper", gopher won't find it. This is different than how Web search tools act, and takes some getting used to. Netanswers: Ok, I'll open the floor to questions about Gopher. Please type "?" if you have a question about gopher or veronica. Jcko : ?. CJ Ellen: Protocol is in effect. Type ? for a question, ! for a comment, and wait to be called on just like school. CJ Ellen: Queue = ?Jcko Netanswers: Jcko, your question? CJ Ellen: ::looking for hands:: Jcko: I have 2.6 but my computer states that I have not enough memory to open Gopher or the WWW. I have asked around. No one seems to be able to help. Netanswers: Jc, are you using a Mac or Windows? Jcko: Mac. Netanswers: Here's what you do--send email to "Macfixes" with any subject line and any message body. You'll receive a help file that will explain how to deal with memory problems. Easy to fix. OK? Jcko: Thanks. Netanswers: Sure. CJ Ellen: Stump, any Gopher questions? Stumpguy : Doing just fine , thanks Netanswers: OK, the Gopher talk is done I guess. I'll open the floor to questions about anything Internet related. Well, then... CJ Ellen: Kevin, I have a comment about Veronica. Netanswers: Ellen, you didn't use protocol!! :-) CJ Ellen: For all it's much-vaunted value, it's come up dry for me so many times it's laughable. *I* don't have to use protocol. :) Netanswers: Hmmm, Yeah, that happens with Veronica sometimes, but if you're doing a thorough Internet search, don't you feel Gopher/Veronica is worth checking, at least? CJ Ellen: Anyway, do you have any tips or tricks to suggest? Netanswers: When using Gopher, I try to put the least common words first--eg "savetz kevin" will do better than "kevin savetz" since savetz is a rarer word. CJ Ellen: Hmm, good tip. Netanswers: Hm. Well, perhaps the Gopher well is really drying up because of the Web. I feel bad for it, though, since there is a lot of neat stuff out there, that just hasn't been ported to the Web. I dont think many people are creating gopher sites anymore, BTW. Web servers are easier to set up and HTML lets anyone create a Web page. Gopher is dying a slow death, so use it while it lasts. :-) CJ Ellen: Gopher was really coming into its own when the Web burst on the scene. The Web is Hypertext Gopher :) CJ Ellen: <--- done talking now :) Jcko: ? Netanswer : Yeah. the Web also totally killed some other bonding technologies (Gopher+, HyTelnet, etc,) but I'm not complaining, the Web is a better choice for most things. Tabkas: Gopher is Cool! Netanswers: I'm glad you agree, Tabkas! Jcko: What's the difference between the Web and Gopher?? Netanswers: Jcko, you missed the start of this talk, didn't you? :-) Briefly, Gopher and Web both let you access info on the Internet easily. Gopher uses menus, while the Web uses "hypertext". Gopher is pretty-much graphics free, so the Web is prettier. You can play with Gopher at Keyword: GOPHER. Netanswers: Well, we're about out of time (and audience members)... So before we close up shop, I want to remind everyone to check out ANSWER OF THE DAY (Keyword: ANSWERMAN then press the button.) In AOTD, I dispense a daily dose of Internet info - answers to real questions people email me. End of advert :-) CJ Ellen: Kevin, how many "Where's the porn" questions do you get? CJMezzie: LOL Ellen Netanswers: About 14 a week. WCurra: Do I have to ask a question about Gopher? or can it be anything? CJ Ellen : Hmm, less than I thought. Just curious. Netanswers: Of course, I keep that info to myself. Why share!? *grin* CJ Ellen: LOL! Netanswers: WCurra, we have 3 minutes left--ask a question about anything. WCurra: I'm moving to Santiago. Can I get access to Internet and use I-Phone? (to save on long distance.) Netanswers: WCurra, I suppose there's Internt access in Chile. (Chile, right?) Go to http://www.thelist.com to see if theres an access provider there. If there is one that allows PPP or SLIP connections, you can use I-phone. Netanswers: OK, we're out of time. Thanks for coming!! See you tomorrow for more Gopher-filled fun. WCurra: Right. Thanks.