Introduction to the Internet Computer Science 1604
Public use of the Internet, with millions of "netizens" world wide has spurred the development of databases that keep track of netizens world wide. Some are little more than conversion of phone white pages into electronic net accessible databases. Many other efforts have been made to create electronic "white pages" where people can register their e-mail or web pages, thereby publishing their presence on the Internet, for other people to find. In addition to these voluntary registration databases, there are other mechanisms called spiders that automatically surf through the Internet and query machines for their list of e-mail accounts, thus building up a directory. Then again, there are programs that query machines looking for specific people who might have an account on that machine.
A recent endeavor by some commercial companies is to provide free e-mail and web page space to people who sign up. These people are automatically registered in their electronic white pages when they subscibe to an e-mail or web page account. These companies, like Geocities and Yahoo make their profits from advertising on the web pages or selling information about their subscribers to marketers. An attractive draw of these services is that these freemail accounts can be permanent (at least as permanent as these companies are) and even though you may move jobs or move to another state with a different access provider, you can keep the same account wherever you go.
Email: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu Subject: none, nothing, blank Message body: send usenet-addresses/name Name is the person for whom you are searching
% whois jarrell. Jarrell, James (JJ11) (919) 271-2241 Jarrell, James A. (JAJ) jarrell@CSCNS.COM (304) 453-2608 Jarrell, Ronald A. (RAJ15) jarrell@VTSERF.CC.VT.EDU (703) 231-9513
The InterNIC Registration Services Host contains ONLY Internet Information (Networks, ASN's, Domains, and POC's). Please use the whois server at nic.ddn.mil for MILNET Information.
