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1. Introduction

It all started when a frustrated student told me, quite by chance, that she had to write a term paper about computer-crime but was unable to locate appropriate references in our library. Although I suspected that the student did not really use all the library services available, I thought that the perfect place to locate such information would be by using the computer itself.

I have used the Internet a lot for electronic mail and occasionally to access a computer at another university, but I did not really know what the Internet was, and how to efficiently use it. However, I somehow thought that information about pretty much anything should be accessible through the Internet. I therefore embarked on a quest to search out methods for finding and retrieving information from the Internet, and after several weeks I was not only successful, but I was absolutely amazed by the wealth of information available, and the ease by which it could be retrieved. I subsequently gave the above student much more references than she needed, used data sets obtained through the Internet to improve the teaching of our introductory statistics class, retrieved information about symbolic mathematics which is being incorporated into our calculus sequence, read preprints and papers from the AMS, and had a lot of fun on the side.

I want to describe several methods by which information can be retrieved from the Internet that are available for MS-DOS, Macintosh, as well as Unix computers. All of the software described is cheap, easily available, and very easy to use. The only required configuration is that your machine of choice has access to the Internet (see technical notes at the end for more details).

1.1. What is the Internet

Today's Internet is a global resource connecting millions of users that began as an experiment over 20 years ago by the U.S. Department of Defense. While the networks that make up the Internet are based on a standard set of protocols (a mutually agreed upon method of communication between parties), the Internet also has gateways to networks and services that are based on other protocols
(Krol: What is the Internet - Working Draft, FYI)

The Internet, in effect, ties a large collection of computer networks together through a common standard called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol). Users of any of the networks can utilize services provided by any of the other networks through this standard. Currently, there are about 700,000 networks tied together to form the Internet and the number is growing rapidly.

Usually a user does not have to be concerned with the (intricate) details of how the Internet works or is implemented at a specific site. By using `smart' software, the user is shielded from most technical details and can concentrate on actually using the Internet for the purpose in mind.

1.2. What's in a Name: Addresses and IP Numbers

The only detailed information one needs when dealing with the Internet is the address of Internet members. Each institution attached to the Internet receives a unique domain name and can then in turn assign addresses to members of its network to identify them uniquely to the Internet. There are some guidelines and application processes to follow when obtaining a domain name that are handled by a local system administrator. Usually, the domain name and the subsequent local names of network stations reflect something about an individual participant of the Internet. For example, Dartmouth College has the domain name dartmouth.edu, and a particular station on the Dartmouth College network is called dartvax.dartmouth.edu, or carr.dartmouth.edu. Each station on a network also has a unique four-part numerical address in addition to its name, called the IP number. For example, the IP number of dartvax.dartmouth.edu is 129.170.16.4. The first two parts of that number reflect the domain name and are the same for all stations of the Dartmouth College network. The last two parts of the number can be assigned by Dartmouth College to the individual stations on its network.

When you need to address a particular station on the Internet, you could use the name of that station ( dartvax.dartmouth.edu) or the corresponding IP number (129.170.16.4). Usually, the station name is the more convenient address to use, and it is automatically converted to an IP number by a name server behind the scenes. In some cases, however, you may want to refer to a station directly by its IP number.

Knowing the name of a station usually reveals something about its origins. For example, addresses ending in '.edu' refer to educational institutions in the US, '.com' to commercial institutions in the US, '.org' to non-profit organizations, '.de' to German Internet members, and so on.

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