About TIFCU: The Internet for Commodore Users

TIFCU: The Internet for Commodore 64/128 Users

The Internet for Commodore C64/128 Users (or Tifcu for short) is a book written specifically for C64/128 owners who want to use their computers on the Internet. It can also be used by *ANYONE* using *ANY* computer platform that can use a terminal program with VT100 or ANSI emulation.

Many other platform users (Windows, Mac, Amiga, etc.) have learned to use Internet features such as telnet, IRC and FTP using this book and have remarked about how much they’ve learned from it. We received so much in the way of comments regarding the book that we added some Review Comments below so you can see what others have to say.

The 3rd Edition book contains 302 numbered pages and spans 18 chapters covering everything from connecting a modem to your Commodore, finding an Internet Provider, what you can do once you’re online, and information about TCP/IP connections. It also includes an extensive glossary, index and resource list.To see all the topics covered in the book we’ve also provided a version of the Table of Contents.

What Others Have Said …

The cosmetics are appealing and the arrangement is professional and very well done. You seem to have covered about everything we need or want to know about weaving through the PC Internet web with our Commodores. The layout of the book will be valuable for quick references while on-line.

I am sure when the “word gets out” it will be the “Bible” for us Commodorites.

Neil Rasmussen

… Any (one) getting on (the Internet) with the 64/128 will find this bible on the Internet a must. It takes the mystery out of the Internet and gives you a step by step guide.

MCCC News, July 1997

Ivan Blitz

President, Melbourne Commodore Computer Club Inc.

Every month ten or so people ask me “How do I get on the Internet?” This is actually about 100 questions. Thank God for Gaelyne. Her book simply needed to be written, mainly because now I can point those people with hundreds of questions to an authoritative book with hundreds of answers.
Loadstar Letter #44

Jeff Jones

LOADSTAR

I’ve only really read the UNIX parts, but it’s been more help than reading half of the RedHat manual, due to the way it aims at the beginner as well as the advanced. 🙂

Adam Crawford

The Internet for Commodore C64/128 Users is a brave and broad attempt to put the entire spectrum of our Internet interests into one book, and she does so quite successfully.

… this book has been thoroughly researched and documented. So much of what was a mystery now makes sense to me and I am only scratching the surface.

If you surf the net from a PC, you can find a zillion books to advise you, *but if you own a Commodore, there is only ONE*. In that sense, this book is priceless! The Internet for Commodore C64/128 Users is 323 pages of tightly packed, vital information. I recommend it to you highly.

LUCKY REPORT, May 1997.

K. Dale Sidebottom

LUCKY REPORT

Table of Contents

Chapters 1 to 2
Introduction
  Dedication
  Acknowledgements
  About commands shown in this book
Chapter 1: Hardware Basics                              1
Hardware Requirements to Access the Internet            1
  Modems                                                1
  Interfaces                                            2
  RS-232 Cables                                         4
  Installing Your Modem                                 4
  Step-By-Step Modem Installation instructions:         4
Storage Hardware                                        5
  Disk Drives                                           6
  Virtual Disk Drives                                   6
  Storage Hardware Conflicts                            7
Speed-Up Hardware                                       8
Summary                                                10

Chapter 2: Terminal and Modem Basics                   11
Internet Requirements                                  11
Internet Ready Commodore Term Programs                 11
  Protocols and File Transfers                         12
  Luxury Term Program Features                         13
Term Program Set-up                                    14
Modem Set-up                                           18
When Things Don't Go as Expected                       22
Problems and Solutions Checklist:                      23
  Dialogue128 Problems                                 23
  Dialogue128 and Mini-modem C-2400 Problems           23
  Desterm Upload Problems                              23
  General Modem/Terminal Problems and Solutions:       24
Summary                                                28
Chapters 3 to 5
Chapter 3: Finding an Internet Provider                29
Getting Connected                                      29
SLIP and PPP Accounts                                  29
Menus or UNIX?                                         29
How to Ask for an Account                              30
Types of Internet Providers                            30
  Colleges and Universities                            30
  Free-Nets                                            31
  Commercial Online Services                           31
  Commercial Internet Providers                        31
  Bulletin Board Systems or BBS's                      32
Getting Online Without Going Broke                     32
  Annual or Monthly Fees                               32
  BBS Subscription fees                                32
  Time Charges                                         33
  By the Bite (er, Byte)                               33
  Combination Charges                                  33
  Unlimited Access for a set rate.                     33
Customer Service Considerations                        33
Where to Find Internet Providers                       34
Personal Observations                                  34
Summary                                                35

Chapter 4: Signing Up                                  36
Before Calling the Internet Provider                   36
  UserID                                               36
  Password                                             36
Term Program Preparation                               37
  Capture Buffer                                       37
Connecting to the Internet Provider                    37
  Online The First Time: What to Expect                37
  Menu's and Questions You May See                     38
  Questions About Your Computer                        38
  Service Related Options                              39
  Subscribing to the Service                           40
Accessing Your New Account                             41
  Menu Accounts                                        41
  UNIX Shell Accounts                                  42
Summary                                                43
Chapter 5: UNIX Shell Account Basics                   44
What is UNIX?                                          44
  UNIX Beginnings                                      45
Stuff You Need To Know About UNIX                      46
  Case Sensitivity                                     46
  File Name Length                                     46
  Spaces in UNIX File Names                            46
  Wildcards                                            46
  Commands Can Have Switches                           47
UNIX Commands                                          47
  Viewing Your Directory Space                         47
  Moving to Another Directory                          48
  Copying and Moving Files                             50
  Deleting Files                                       51
  Creating and Removing Directories                    52
  Transferring Files                                   52
  Help With UNIX Commands                              53
  Reading Text Online                                  53
  Getting Out of a Program                             54
  History Repeats Itself                               55
  Changing Your Password                               55
  Logging Off The System                               55
UNIX Command List                                      55
More UNIX To Come                                      57
Summary
 
Chapters 6 to 8
Chapter 6: Welcome to the Internet                     58
Internet Utilities                                     58
  Email                                                58
  Usenet Newsgroups                                    58
  IRC                                                  58
  Talk and Ytalk                                       58
  Msend                                                58
  FTP                                                  59
  Archie                                               59
  Gopher                                               59
  Veronica                                             59
  WWW                                                  59
  Telnet                                               59
  Rlogin                                               59
  Ping                                                 59
  Finger                                               59
Relationships                                          60
Summary                                                60

Chapter 7: Email                                       61
Communicating With Others                              61
Email Headers                                          62
  Sample Email Header:                                 62
Sending Email                                          63
Experimenting With Email                               63
  Sending Email From a Bulletin Board System           64
  Sending Email From an Online Service To An Internet
   Address                                             64
  Sending Mail From the Internet to Other Online
   Services                                            64
Sending Email From a UNIX System                       65
An Overview of Pine                                    65
  Pine Commands                                        67
An Overview of Elm                                     68
  Elm Commands                                         69
Message Folders                                        71
Adding a Text File to a Message                        71
Changing Your Preferences                              72
Signatures                                             72
Bounced Mail                                           72
Emoticons and Shorthand                                73
When You Don't Have an Internet Account                74
Summary                                                74

Chapter 8: Text Editor Commands                        75
Pico                                                   75
  Pico Commands                                        75
Vi                                                     76
  Vi - Enter Text Insertion mode                       76
  Vi - Cursor Movement:                                76
  Vi - Text Modification                               77
  Vi - File Operations                                 78
EMACS                                                  79
  EMACS - Cursor Positioning                           79
  EMACS - Text Modification                            79
  EMACS - Search and Replace                           80
  EMACS - File / Window / Buffer Operations            80
  EMACS - Miscellaneous                                80
Chapters 9 to 12
Chapter 9: Newsgroups                                  81
What are Newsgroups?                                   81
  Anatomy of a Newsgroup Article                       81
Who Controls the News?                                 84
How Do Newsgroups Work?                                84
  Moderated Newsgroups                                 85
Usenet Newsgroup Naming Conventions                    85
  Other Usenet Groups                                  86
Newsreaders                                            86
  Threading                                            86
  Crossposting                                         87
  Follow-ups                                           87
  Subscriptions                                        87
  The .NEWSRC File                                     88
Reading the News                                       88
  rn and trn                                           89
  nn                                                   89
  tin                                                  89
  Pine                                                 90
Downloading Newsgroup Articles                         91
Alternative Ways to Get News                           92
  NNTP-SERVER                                          92
  News via Email                                       93
  News via WWW                                         93
  Deja Newstm                                          93
  AltaVista                                            94
  Another Alternative                                  94
The Good, The Bad and the FAQs                         94
  What's a Spam?                                       94
  What's a Troll?                                      95
  Flaming                                              95
  Netiquette                                           96
Things You May Find in Articles                        97
  Emoticons and Shorthand                              97
  Binaries                                             97
  ROT13                                                98
Using the Kill File                                    98
Tin Commands                                           98
  Tin Start-up Options                                 99
  Input Editing Commands                               99
  Newsgroup, Thread and Article Selection Commands     99
  Group Index and Article Commands                    101
  Thread Listing                                      102
  When Viewing Articles                               102
Summary                                               103

Chapter 10: Telnet and Other Utilities                104
Telnet                                                104
Rlogin                                                107
Ping                                                  107
Finger                                                108
Summary                                               108

Chapter 11: FTP and Archie                            109
What is FTP?                                          109
How Do We Use FTP?                                    110
  Changing Directories                                111
  Viewing a Directory                                 111
  Binary Files                                        112
  Getting Files                                       112
  Putting (Uploading) Files                           114
FTP via Menu                                          114
  Getting Files (Menu Style)                          115
NCFTP                                                 115
  What is NCFTP?                                      115
  Getting Files Using NCFTP                           116
FTP/NCFTP Commands                                    117
Other Uses for FTP                                    118
FTP Sites                                             118
Archie                                                119
  What is Archie?                                     119
  Accessing Archie                                    119
  Archie by Telnet                                    119
  Archie Servers                                      121
  Using Archie From Your Service                      122
Summary                                               122

Chapter 12: World Wide Web                            123
How WWW Pages Are Viewed                              123
  Universal Resource Locator                          124
  Using Lynx via Telnet                               124
  Viewing a WWW Page                                  125
  Going to Other Sites                                125
  Navigating and Seeing Your Cursor Movements         126
Using Lynx                                            127
  Saving Information                                  127
  Graphics                                            127
  Downloading Other Files                             129
  WWW  Downloaded File Problems                       129
  Filling Out Forms                                   129
  Frames                                              131
  Image-Maps                                          132
  Using the Lynx Bookmark                             132
  Searching a Web Page for a Key Word Using Lynx      133
Configuring Lynx                                      133
  Description of Lynx Options                         134
Using WWW Search Engines                              137
  General Search Rules                                138
Browsing Your Home Directory With Lynx                139
Lynx Commands                                         141
  Getting Around in a Document:                       141
  Other Commands                                      141
Commodore Related Web Pages                           143
Summary                                               143
 
Chapters 13 to 16
Chapter 13: Gopher                                    144
Gopher Overview                                       144
  Gopher Menu's                                       144
  Gopher Bookmarks                                    145
Veronica                                              145
Gopher Commands                                       147
  Navigating                                          147
  Bookmarks                                           148
  Other Commands                                      148
Summary                                               148

Chapter 14: IRC Internet Relay Chat                   149
Communicating With Others                             149
IRC Basics                                            149
  Starting IRC                                        149
  Configuration Changes                               150
  Typing IRC Commands                                 151
  Pausing Text Output                                 151
  Your Nickname                                       151
  New User Status                                     152
  Going Invisible                                     152
  IRC Command  History                                152
  Finding and Joining Channels                        153
IRC Conversations and Commands                        154
  Leaving a Channel Without Leaving Other Channels    155
  Who is That Person                                  155
  Who's in a Specific Channel                         156
  Channel Operators                                   156
  Actions                                             156
  Ignorance is Bliss:  How to Ignore in IRC           157
  What is Flooding?                                   158
  Getting Kicked Out and Banned                       158
  Away and Signing Off                                159
Sending and Receiving Private Messages                160
  Sending A Private Message                           160
  Replying to a Private Message                       160
  Private Channels                                    161
  Query Mode                                          161
What are CTCP and DCC?                                161
  DCC                                                 162
  File Transfers                                      162
  DCC Chat                                            163
  Keeping Track of DCC Connections                    164
IRC General Hints and Tips                            164
  Delays                                              164
  Non-English IRC Channels                            165
  Joining an Invitation-only channel                  165
  Seeing the Whole Channel Name                       165
  Newbie Vultures                                     165
IRC Networks and Servers                              166
  Changing Servers                                    166
  IRC Server List                                     167
IRC Commands                                          168
Useful Control-keys for Editing                       169
Commodore IRC Channels                                169
Other Ways to Communicate                             169
  Talk and Ytalk                                      169
  Msend                                               170
Summary                                               170

Chapter 15: Advanced Email                            171
Reading  Email and Newsgroups Offline                 171
  Text                                                171
  Email                                               171
  Newsgroups                                          173
  Offline Mail Readers                                173
  UQWK                                                179
Mailing Lists                                         184
  Finding Mailing lists to join?                      185
  Mail List Etiquette                                 187
  Commodore Mail Lists                                187
Accessing Internet Utilities Through Email            189
General Mail Servers                                  189
  Using the  Mail Server at RTFM.MIT.EDU              190
Gopher by Email                                       193
  Gophermail Servers                                  193
  Gopher Sites                                        193
Newsgroups by Email                                   194
  Alternate Gopher Hosts for Newsgroups               195
  Posting to Newsgroups Through Email                 195
  Searching Usenet Newsgroups                         196
WWW by Email                                          196
  WWW Mail Servers                                    196
  Using WWW Search Engines                            198
FTP by Email                                          199
  FTPMail Servers                                     200
  FTPmail Server Commands                             200
Archie by Email                                       202
  Archie Mail Servers                                 203
  Archie Mail Server Commands                         203
Internet via Email Mailing List                       204
Summary                                               204

Chapter 16: Changing Your Environment                 205
Changing Your Environment: BBS Systems                205
Changing Your Environment: Online Services            205
Changing Your Environment: UNIX                       206
  Finding What Type of UNIX Shell You Have            206
  Making Immediate Changes                            206
  Making Your Changes Permanent                       207
Resetting After Making Permanent Changes              208
Creating and Using Script Files                       209
  Sample Script for C-Shell and TSCH Users:           210
  Sample Script for Bourne, Korn and Bash Shell Users 210
Using Aliases to Make Quick Shortcuts                 212
  C-shell and TSCH Alias Examples                     212
  Korn and Bash Shell Alias Examples                  212
File Permissions                                      214
  Changing File Permissions                           216
Editing Configuration Files                           217
  Why Change a Configuration File?                    217
  Commented Lines and Remarks                         218
  Yes/No True/False On/Off                            218
Lynx Configure File                                   218
  Lynx Configuration Items You May Want to Change     219
The MIME.TYPES File                                   222
Editing the .NEWSRC File                              223
Editing the .IRCRC File                               224
  Explanation of .IRCRC Commands                      225
Finger Files                                          227
Foreground and Background: Multi-Tasking              227
Summary                                               229
Chapters 17 to Appendices
Chapter 17: Dealing with Files                        230
File Transfers                                        230
  Downloading Files                                   230
  Uploading Files                                     231
  File Transfer Problems                              231
Archives                                              232
  Commodore Archives                                  232
  Other Platform Archives                             233
  UNIX Archives                                       234
  Using Your Shell Account for Other Platform
   Archives                                           235
Other Types of Files                                  236
Viewing GIF Pictures                                  236
  Viewing Problems                                    237
  Viewing Other Graphic Files                         237
Trouble Shooting                                      237
  FTP File Problems                                   237
  World Wide Web File Problems                        238
  Press D for Download                                238
Text Files                                            238
  Commodore PETASCII, MS-DOS and UNIX                 238
Files Through Email                                   241
UUencodes                                             242
  Decoding UUencoded Files Online                     242
  Decoding UUencoded Files Offline                    242
  Creating and Sending UUencoded Files Online         243
  Creating and Sending UUencoded Files Offline        244
    Novaterm 9.6                                      245
    UUXFER                                            245
    ACE UUencode                                      245
MIME Files                                            246
  Decoding MIME Files Online                          246
  Decoding MIME Files Offline                         247
  Creating and Sending MIME Files Online              248
Email File Problems                                   249
  W3mail UUencode Problems                            250
  Files Through Newsgroups                            250
Summary                                               251

Chapter 18: TCP/IP Connections                        252
TCP/IP                                                252
  What's a TCP/IP Stack?                              253
SLIP and PPP Connections                              254
  SLIP (or PPP) Set Up                                254
Connecting Your C= to the Internet                    256
Clients and Servers                                   257
  What client application programs do we need?        257
  Will I need new hardware?                           258
  What's available right now?                         258
  What's in the works?                                259
Summary                                               259

Appendix 1: Glossary                                  260
Appendix 2: Internet and UNIX Commands                277
Appendix 3: Key Equivalents                           279
Appendix 4: Source List                               280
Online Services and Internet Providers                280
Free-Nets                                             281

Commodore Resources, Commercial                       286
  Click Here Software                                 286
  CMD                                                 286
  Dave's Term 128                                     286
  GoDot                                               287
  HART Cartridge                                      287
  IPort                                               287
  Novaterm v9.6                                       287
  RAMDrive, BBGRam                                    287
  VideoCam Services                                   288

Commodore Resources, On the Net                       289
  RS232 Interfaces                                    291
  DATA Pump UART Interface                            291
  Internet Resources                                  291
  Commodore FTP Sites List                            291
  COMP.SYS.CBM FAQ files                              292
  Jim Brain's Commodore LISTSERV                      292
  TIFCU Mailing List                                  292
  Novaterm Mailing List                               292
  Commodor Mailing List                               292
  Virtual Internet C= User's Group                    292
  Commodore WWW Search Utility                        292
Finding Updated Information                           292

Index                                                 293
About the Author                                      302

What are you waiting for?