10/03/94 RMIUG Meeting Minutes - User Fest

Warning: Due to the format of this meeting, the minutes are very long. I (Will Clurman, Minuteman o' th' Month) chose to include many of the specifics from the meeting because each panelist represented a specific knowledge base that may serve as a resource to readers of these minutes. Also, individual members requested that we include some resource lists provided by the presenters. The minutes for our meetings are the chief means we have of remembering the things that make up RMIUG's collective wealth of knowledge and interests. Anyone with suggestions regarding the minutes format can feel free to respond to rmiug-comm@rmiug.org. :)

The ninth meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet User's Group was October 3rd, 1994. About 80 people were in attendance, even though this meeting could not be held on our usual night due to tight scheduling at NCAR for the month of October. Randy Holt (rholt@ingr.com) MC'ed the meeting, (congrats to Randy on an idea and a job well done) which was a Userfest panel discussion involving six RMIUG'ers describing the software and hardware they use to work and play over the Internet. RMIUG wishes to thank the Soaring Society of Boulder for their cooperation on the night of the meeting when we found out that they had booked the main seminar room at NCAR and we had been given the smaller room upstairs. The Soaring Society graciously yielded the main room to our larger membership, and we appreciate their flexibility.

Some general administrivia issues and announcements of interest:

• We currently have almost 500 people signed up on RMIUG's Email list. Note that an Email to rmiug@rmiug.org generates an auto-reply with info about the RMIUG. Those wishing to receive only general announcements regarding upcoming meetings and notes of importance from RMIUG's Executive Committee should subscribe to the moderated list, rmiug-announce@rmiug.org. There is another _unmoderated_ list for discussion of items of community interest available at rmiug-discuss@rmiug.org

• *FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 14-15-16 OCTOBER 1994 Aspen Internet Festival*

  Hosted by the Aspen Institute, Aspen Colorado The Festival is intended for all Internet users in the State or anyone in the country with a specific interest in, or curiosity about, the Internet.

  This years Festival is scheduled for October 14 - 16 at the Paepcke Auditorium of the Aspen Institute. This venue will provide a rich atmosphere for the participant to learn, exchange and develop skills around the Internet.

  For registration packet please e-mail Toni Black (black@coloradomtn.coloradomtn.edu).with your NAME, USPS MAILING ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER and FAX NUMBER or call the Festival "Hotline" at (303) 945-5320.

• Will Clurman (will@boulderpcs.com/phone: 440-0402) displayed the entries for the RMIUG logo contest. He is still looking for more submissions for a December decision on a logo for the group. Anyone who can come up with interesting design concepts and can put them on disk or paper should _leap_ at this opportunity to contribute to the development of an image for RMIUG.org. The logo will go on press releases, business cards, T-shirts, and RMIUG's set of virtual golf clubs ;-) Two people have submitted their entries already. Ray Higgins (758-6864) of Broken Hand Printing has generously offered to help anyone who has an idea lay out their concept on paper. People can fax their entries to Will Clurman at (303) 440-3677.

The Userfest Panelists and their subjects were:

Dan Notov (danno@large.com), Consultant at Large specializing in Systems and Network Administration, and Internet Connectivity issues. During the past eight years he has worked for firms in such diverse fields as NY Advertising, German computers, and Colorado VARs.

Dan uses:

MacPPP to access the Internet via RMII. The tools I use include NCSA Telnet/Mosaic, Eudora 1.4 (E-mail), Fetch (a nice ftp tool), Turb Gopher, MacWWW, InterNews (nntp reader).

He offered knowledge and advice for Mac folks on:

What's needed & how to get it
MacTCP, InterSlip, MacPPP
Adam Engst's Internet Start Kit book
Getting connected -- costs, trials and tribulations
Configuring login scripts
The toys: Eudora, InterNews, Fetch, Turbo Gopher,
Mosaic/MacWWW Dan also contributed a list of resources for inclusion in the meeting minutes:

Here's a list of ftp sites where you can find Mac Related stuff.

I particularly like the Tidbits FTP site; never a problem connecting, and always up to date. Also, I have provided a lineup of current Mac Internet software. Finally a reference for Adam Engst's book.

FTP SITES

Tibits FTP SITE:        ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tisk
Dartmouth Univ:         ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/mac
Info-Mac Archives:      ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/info-mac*
Apple:                  ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac

SOFTWARE

MacTCP          V2.04           TCP Protocol Stack
MacPPP          V2.0.1          PPP Modem Driver
InterSlip       V1.0.1          SLIP Modem Driver
Eudora          V1.4            POP/SMTP E-Mail User Agent+
NewsWatcher     V2.0d17         NNTP NetNews Reader/Poster
Fetch           V2.1.2          FTP Tool
TurboGopher     V1.0.7          Gopher Client
Anarchie        V1.3.1          Archie/FTP Tool
NCSA Telnet     V2.6            Telnet/FTP
NCSA Mosaic     V1.03           WWW Browser
MacWeb          V1.00A2.2       WWW Browser

BOOK

Internet Starter Kit, Adam C. Engst, Hayden Books, ISBN 1-56830-064-6 This book includes most of the above software. Check the version of MacTCP, as it may need to be updated. An updater program is available on the Tidbits FTP Site.

*These two sites are normally VERY busy. You can also get to a Info-Mac mirror site at ftp.uu.net. Anarchie has the path set in its standard bookmark window.

+Qualcomm sells a commercial version of Eudora. I believe the current release is V2.5

Dave Martin (davidm@rmii.com), formerly of the Tattered Cover Bookstore, is a consultant specializing in C and Database software development. David has been using Linux both at home and at work as an alternative to commercial personal UNIX implementations.

Dave provided insight into possibilities and resources for implementing Linux to handle Internet Server functions. He included these resources for the meeting minutes:

For info on Linux networking -
        SEE: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/NET-2-HOWTO
 
For info on the various Linux distributions -
        SEE: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/distribution-HOWTO
 
Some places where you can obtain Linux on the Internet -
        SEE: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions
        SEE: ftp.cdrom.com:/pub/linux (This is where you can get the 
             Slackware distribution, this distribution is probably the
             most commonly used).
 
Linux on cdrom -

        Tattered Cover Bookstore (303) 322-7727 books@tatteredcover.com
                - Linux Developer's Resource (2 cd set) $20.00
                The TC may sell these as well, I'm not sure.
                - Yggdrasil (This boots and can run entirely off cdrom).
                - Slackware Professional 2.0 (This boots and can run 
entirely off cdrom).
 
        InfoMagic Inc. (they carry Linux Developer's Resource as well as
others)
                1-602-683-9565
                info@infomagic.com
                orders@infomagic.com
 
Internet sites of interest -
        sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux
        tsx-11.edu:/pub/linux
        http://www.pylon.com/linux/linux.html
 
        newsgroups
                comp.os.linux.admin
                comp.os.linux.announce
                comp.os.linux.development
                comp.os.linux.help
                comp.os.linux.misc

James Schrecengost (jschrec@ghost.com) started cruising the internet about 6 months ago. In a wild gopher search one day, I found RMIUG. I am currently the PC/Windows Internet support person for Schuller International at the Mountain Technical Center. Everything I know has been either learned by hit and miss or reading the docs. I have been working with computers (PC's mostly) since the Apple II+.

I am the PC/Windows support person (for Schuller International, MTC Plant site in Littleton, Co.) concerning the internet (and other issues as well). We have a Direct PPP line through a NetBlazer modem (soon to upgrade to a UNIX box & a 56KB line). I also use the same utilities at home with a dial-in Slip account at Rocky Mountain Internet, Inc. (the same service provider that Schuller uses).

I enjoy teaching people about the internet and various capabilities for other platforms (We use Mac's also, I don't support them directly but I know how they work fairly well, just not as intimately as w/the windows clients).

PS. I love OS/2 and am looking at getting stuff for the internet for it.

I have used several [windows] shareware apps for quite some time now. They are:

        Eudora Mail Client, Trumpet Winsock packet driver 4 win,
        Trumpet newsreader and mail client, WS FTP client,
        Hamptons Gopher, Mosiac, WS IRC, Telnet, and other
        random utilities like host lookup, finger and Ping.

David Eisler (eisler@ix.netcom.com) Arvada CO., Netcruiser user, software author (Monster Smash, On Balance, Bottom Line), cardiovascular mechanical engineer, and mad inventor.

I use Netcom's "Netcruiser" software, a GUI Windows Internet interface. The program has problems, but overall I think it's GREAT because it was so easy to startup and start surfing.

Netcruiser includes: Mail, Newsgroups, FTP, Telnet, Gopher, Finger, Web browser, and an image viewer.

Cost: $25 set up( including Netcruiser software) + $20/mo. That includes 40 free peak time hours and UNLIMITED off-peak hours. Peak hours are 9AM to Midnight. It's a local call from Denver.

Gary Kushner (kushner@tardis.Colorado.EDU) works at CU in boulder for the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy. I assist in the operation of the PC's in our group and help setup the PC's for internet applications. We are connected to the campus ethernet at CU, so we have a direct connection to the internet. I have also setup remote machines for SLIP access to our work system. I do not have a lot of time for computer support at work, so when I find a system that works, I generally stop looking.

The software packages I can talk about are:

Trumpet Winsock over direct ethernet
Trumpet Winsock as a Slip server (with DOS packet driver)
WNQVTNET as a Telnet, Ftp, POP-mail, Net news, and
LPR package.
Mosaic over ethernet and Slip lines.

The next RMIUG meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8th. Knight-Ridder Labs will be talking to us on Tuesday, November 8th. They will be presenting their vision of the electronic newspaper of the future and discussing ways to help the newspaper industry evolve in the electronic age. They will discuss the reasons why newspapers are in a good position to take advantage of electronic publishing and what the challenges are. A video will illustrate their vision and hopefully provide a good basis for discussion.

RMIUG wishes to thank Internet One of Boulder for sponsoring the refreshments, NCAR for the use of their meeting room, and XOR Network Engineering for electronic "stuff"

Suggestions/comments/feedback are always welcome - pls Email these to rmiug-comm@rmiug.org or call Dan Murray at 447-3475.

Contact Information:

RMIUG "Executive" Committee, rmiug-comm@rmiug.org
RMIUG Librarians (Joe Betts & Bo the Bohemian), rmiug-books@rmiug.org
RMIUG has an Email list for its members. Send an Email to rmiug@rmiug.org for more info