Archive-name: www/faq/part1
Last-modified: 1994/08/08

                   WORLD WIDE WEB FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

                      This is part 1 of a 2-part posting.
                   Part 2 begins with section 5 (providing
               information to the web). It should be the next
                           posting in this thread.
                                       
  VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
   
   This document now has a new home on sunsite.unc.edu. Many thanks to
   the fine folks at Sunsite!
   
   Please CHANGE any URLs you may have pointing to this document's WWW
   version to the following:
   
   http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html
   
Contents

     * 1: Recent changes to the FAQ
     * 2: Information about this document
     * 3: Elementary Questions
          + 3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
          + 3.2: What is a URL?
          + 3.3: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
     * 4: Accessing the Web (User Questions)
          + 4.1: Introduction: How can I access the web?
          + 4.2: Browsers Accessible by Telnet
          + 4.3: Obtaining browsers
               o 4.3.1: Microsoft Windows browsers
               o 4.3.2: MSDOS browsers
               o 4.3.3: Macintosh browsers
               o 4.3.4: Amiga browsers
               o 4.3.5: NeXTStep browsers
               o 4.2.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS) browsers
               o 4.3.7: Text-based Unix and VMS browsers
               o 4.3.8: Batch-mode "browsers"
          + 4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?
          + 4.5: What is on the web?
               o 4.5.1: How do I find out what's new on the web?
               o 4.6.2: Where is the subject catalog of the web?
               o 4.5.3: How can I search through ALL web sites?
          + 4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?
          + 4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
          + 4.8: I have a Windows PC (or a Macintosh). Why can't I open
            WAIS URLs?
          + 4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers
            working?
          + 4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring robot! Why not?
          + 4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to my web client?
     * 5: Providing Information to the Web (Provider Questions)
        5.1: Introduction: How can I provide information to the web?
          + 5.2: Obtaining Servers
               o 5.2.1: Unix Servers
               o 5.2.2: Macintosh Servers
               o 5.2.3: Windows and Windows NT Servers
               o 5.2.4: MSDOS Servers
               o 5.2.5: VMS Servers
               o 5.2.6: Amiga Servers
          + 5.3: Producing HTML documents
               o 5.3.1: Writing HTML directly
               o 5.3.2: HTML editors
               o 5.3.3: Converting other formats to HTML
          + 5.4: How do I publicize my work?
          + 5.5: Can I buy space on an existing server?
          + 5.6: Advanced Provider Questions
               o 5.6.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
               o 5.6.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't load a new
                 page?
               o 5.6.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out forms?
                    # 5.6.3.1: How can I create hidden fields in forms
                      (keeping state)?
               o 5.6.4: How do I comment an HTML document?
               o 5.6.5: How can I create decent-looking tables and stop
                 using <PRE>...</PRE>?
               o 5.6.6: What is HTML Level 3 and where can I learn more
                 about it?
               o 5.6.7: How can I make transparent GIFs?
               o 5.6.8: Which format is better for WWW images, JPEG or
                 GIF?
               o 5.6.9: How can I mirror part of another server?
               o 5.6.10: How come mailto: URLs don't work?
               o 5.6.11: How can I restrict and control access to my
                 server?
     * 6: What newsgroups discuss the web?
     * 7: I want to know more.
     * 8: Credits
       
                         1: RECENT CHANGES TO THE FAQ
                                       
     * 7/27: Reorganized the FAQ (split up "advanced questions")
     * 7/27: Updated HTML Level 3 section, added link to CERN
     * 7/27: Full URL provided for CERN server
     * 7/27: Send-news-to-browser section expanded to cover Mosaic
     * 7/27: Information on hidden fields added
     * 7/27: JPEG versus GIF section added
     * 7/27: Information on leasing web server space added
     * 7/27: Firewall information added
     * 7/27: Site-mirroring section added
     * 7/27: ALIWEB information added
     * 7/27: NCSA HTTPD URL updated
     * 7/27: Amiga servers section added
     * 7/27: Comments on mixed-case URLs amended
       
                      2: INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
                                       
   This is an introduction to the World Wide Web project, describing the
   concepts, software and access methods. It is aimed at people who know
   a little about navigating the Internet, but want to know more about
   WWW specifically. If you don't think you are up to this level, try an
   introductory Internet book such as Ed Krol's "The Whole Internet" or
   "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet". The latter is available
   electronically by anonymous FTP from ftp.eff.org in the directory
   pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy.
   
   This informational document is posted to news.answers,
   comp.infosystems.www.users, comp.infosystems.www.providers,
   comp.infosystems.www.misc, comp.infosystems.gopher,
   comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext every four days (please allow
   a day or two for it to propagate to your site). The latest version is
   always available on the web as
   http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html. (see the section
   titled "What is a URL?" to understand what this means.)
   
   The most recently posted version of this document is kept on the
   news.answers archive on rtfm.mit.edu in
   /pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq. For information on FTP, send e-mail
   to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with:

send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources

   in the body (not subject line) of your message, instead of asking me.
   
   Thomas Boutell maintains this document. Feedback about it is to be
   sent via e-mail to boutell@netcom.com.
   
   In all cases, regard this document as out of date. Definitive
   information should be on the web, and static versions such as this
   should be considered unreliable at best. The most up-to-date version
   of the FAQ is the version maintained on the web. Please excuse any
   formatting inconsistencies in the posted version of this document, as
   it is automatically generated from the on-line version.
   
                            3: ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS
                                       
3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?

   WWW stands for "World Wide Web". The WWW project, started by CERN (the
   European Laboratory for Particle Physics), seeks to build a
   distributed hypermedia system.
   
   
   
   The advantage of hypertext is that in a hypertext document, if you
   want more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can
   usually "just click on it" to read further detail. In fact, documents
   can be and often are linked to other documents by completely different
   authors -- much like footnoting, but you can get the referenced
   document instantly!
   
   To access the web, you run a browser program. The browser reads
   documents, and can fetch documents from other sources. Information
   providers set up hypermedia servers which browsers can get documents
   from.
   
   The browsers can, in addition, access files by FTP, NNTP (the Internet
   news protocol), gopher and an ever-increasing range of other methods.
   On top of these, if the server has search capabilities, the browsers
   will permit searches of documents and databases.
   
   The documents that the browsers display are hypertext documents.
   Hypertext is text with pointers to other text. The browsers let you
   deal with the pointers in a transparent way -- select the pointer, and
   you are presented with the text that is pointed to.
   
   Hypermedia is a superset of hypertext -- it is any medium with
   pointers to other media. This means that browsers might not display a
   text file, but might display images or sound or animations.
   
3.2: What is a URL?

   URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator". It is a draft standard for
   specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or newsgroup.
   
   URLs look like this: (file: and ftp: URLs are synonymous.)
     * file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip
     * ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors
     * http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html
     * news:alt.hypertext
     * telnet://dra.com
       
   
   
   The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access
   method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to
   the access method. In general, two slashes after the colon indicate a
   machine name (machine:port is also valid).
   
   When you are told to "check out this URL", what to do next depends on
   your browser; please check the help for your particular browser. For
   the line-mode browser at CERN, which you will quite possibly use first
   via telnet, the command to try a URL is "GO URL" (substitute the
   actual URL of course). In Lynx you just select the "GO" link on the
   first page you see; in graphical browsers, there's usually an "Open
   URL" option in the menus.
   
3.3: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?

   While all three of these information presentation systems are
   client-server based, they differ in terms of their model of data. In
   gopher, data is either a menu, a document, an index or a telnet
   connection. In WAIS, everything is an index and everything that is
   returned from the index is a document. In WWW, everything is a
   (possibly) hypertext document which may be searchable.
   
   In practice, this means that WWW can represent the gopher (a menu is a
   list of links, a gopher document is a hypertext document without
   links, searches are the same, telnet sessions are the same) and WAIS
   (a WAIS index is a searchable page, returning a document with no
   links) data models as well as providing extra functionality.
   
   Gopher and World Wide Web usage are now running neck and neck,
   according to the statistics-keepers of the Internet backbone. (Of
   course, World Wide Web browsers can also access Gopher servers, which
   inflates the numbers for the latter.) This is changing as WWW reaches
   critical mass (usage of the server at CERN doubles every 4 months --
   twice the rate of Internet expansion).
   
4.1: Introduction: how can I access the web?

   You have two options: either use a browser that can be telnetted to,
   or use a browser on your machine. It is always best to run a browser
   on your own machine, unless you absolutely cannot do so; but feel free
   to telnet to a browser for your first look at the web. Note that "your
   machine" can be defined as a system you dial into from home, such as
   netcom or another account provider. Running a text-based browser on
   such a system is still preferable to telnetting to a faraway site.
   
4.2: Browsers accessible by telnet

   An up-to-date list of these is available on the Web as
   http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/FAQ/Bootstrap.html and should be
   regarded as an authoritative list.
   
   info.cern.ch
          No password is required. This is in Switzerland, so continental
          US users might be better off using a closer browser.
          
   www.cc.ukans.edu
          A full screen browser "Lynx" which requires a vt100 terminal.
          Log in as www. Does not allow users to "go" to arbitrary URLs,
          so GET YOUR OWN COPY of Lynx and install it on your system if
          your administrator has not done so already. The best plain-text
          browser, so move mountains if necessary to get your own copy of
          Lynx!
          
   www.njit.edu
          (or telnet 128.235.163.2) Log in as www. A full-screen browser
          in New Jersey Institute of Technology. USA.
          
   www.huji.ac.il
          A dual-language Hebrew/English database, with links to the rest
          of the world. The line mode browser, plus extra features. Log
          in as www. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
          
   sun.uakom.cs
          Slovakia. Has a slow link, only use from nearby.
          
   info.funet.fi
          (or telnet 128.214.6.102). Log in as www. Offers several
          browsers, including Lynx (goto option is disabled there also).
          
   fserv.kfki.hu
          Hungary. Has slow link, use from nearby. Login is as www.
          
4.3: Obtaining browsers

   The preferred method of access of the Web is to run a browser
   yourself. Browsers are available for many platforms, both in source
   and executable forms. Here is a list generated from the authoritative
   list, http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html.
   
  4.3.1: MICROSOFT WINDOWS BROWSERS
  
   
   
   NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
   networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
   lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
   or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
   access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
   VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
   so.
   
   Cello        Browser from Cornell LII. Available by anonymous FTP from
   ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/cello.
   
   Mosaic for Windows   From NCSA. Available by anonymous FTP from
   ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory PC/Mosaic.
   
  4.3.2: MSDOS BROWSERS
  
   
   
   NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
   networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
   lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
   or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
   access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
   VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
   so.
   
   DosLynx
          DosLynx is an excellent text-based browser for use on DOS
          systems. You must have a level 1 packet driver, or an emulation
          thereof, or you will only be able to browse local files;
          essentially, if your PC has an Ethernet connection, or you have
          SLIP, you should be able to use it. DosLynx can view GIF
          images, but not when they are inline images (as of this
          writing). See the README.HTM file at the DosLynx site for
          details. You can obtain DosLynx by anonymous FTP from
          ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory pub/WWW/DosLynx; the URL is
          ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/.
          
  4.3.3: MACINTOSH BROWSERS
  
   
   
   NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
   networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
   lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
   or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
   access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
   VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
   so.
   
   Mosaic for Macintosh
          From NCSA. Full featured. Available by anonymous FTP from
          ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mac/Mosaic.
          
   Samba  From CERN. Basic. Available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
          in the directory /ftp/pub/www/bin as the file mac.
          
   MacWeb
          From EINet. Has features that Mosaic lacks; lacks some features
          that Mosaic has. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net
          in the directory einet/mac/macweb.
          
   
   
  4.3.4: AMIGA BROWSERS
  
   AMosaic
          Browser for AmigaOS, based on NCSA's Mosaic. Supports older
          Amigas as well as the newer machines in the latest versions, I
          am told; available for anonymous ftp from
          max.physics.sunysb.edu in the directory /pub/amosaic, or from
          aminet sites in /pub/aminet/comm/net. see the site for details.
          See the URL http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html.
          
  4.3.5: NEXTSTEP BROWSERS
  
   
   
   Note: NeXT systems can also run X-based browsers using one of the
   widely used X server products for the NeXT. The browsers listed here,
   by contrast, are native NeXTStep applications.
   
   OmniWeb
          A World Wide Web browser for NeXTStep. The URL for more
          information is http://www.omnigroup.com/; you can ftp the
          package from ftp.omnigroup.com in the /pub/software/ directory.
          
   WorldWideWeb, CERN's NeXT Browser-Editor
          A browser/editor for NeXTStep. Currently out of date; editor
          not operational. Allows wysiwyg hypertext editing. Requires
          NeXTStep 3.0. Available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in
          the directory /pub/www/src.
          
  4.3.6: X/DECWINDOWS (GRAPHICAL UNIX, VMS) BROWSERS
  
   NCSA Mosaic for X
          Unix browser using X11/Motif. Multimedia magic. Full http 1.0
          support including PUT-method forms, image maps, etc.
          Recommended if you can run it. Available by anonymous FTP from
          ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mosaic.
          
   NCSA Mosaic for VMS
          Browser using X11/DecWindows/Motif. For the VMS operating
          system. Multimedia magic. Full http 1.0 support including
          PUT-method forms, image maps, etc. Recommended if you can run
          it. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the
          directory Mosaic.
          
   tkWWW Browser/Editor for X11
          Unix Browser/Editor for X11. (Beta test version.) Available for
          anonymous ftp from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the directory
          tkwww[extension] (followed by an extension possibly dependent
          on the current version). Please ftp to the site and look for
          the latest version (or use the link above). Supports WSYIWYG
          HTML editing.
          
   MidasWWW Browser
          A Unix/X browser from Tony Johnson. (Beta, works well.)
          
   Viola for X (Beta)
          Viola has two versions for Unix/X: one using Motif, one using
          Xlib (no Motif). Handles HTML Level 3 forms and tables. Has
          extensions for multiple columning, collapsible/expandable list,
          client-side document include. Available by anonymous FTP from
          ora.com in /pub/www/viola. More information available at the
          URL http://xcf.berkeley.edu/ht/projects/viola/README.
          
   Chimera
          Unix/X Browser using Athena (doesn't require Motif). Supports
          forms, inline images, etc.; closest to Mosaic in feel of the
          non-Motif X11 browsers. Available for anonymous FTP from
          ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the directory /pub/chimera.
          
    4.3.7: Text-mode Unix and VMS browsers
    
   
   
   These are text-based browsers for Unix (and in some cases also VMS)
   systems. In many cases your system administrator will have already
   installed one or more of these packages; check before compiling your
   own copy.
   
   Line Mode Browser
          This program gives W3 readership to anyone with a dumb
          terminal. A general purpose information retrieval tool.
          Available by anonymous ftp from info.cern.ch in the directory
          /pub/www/src.
          
   The "Lynx" full screen browser
          This is a hypertext browser for vt100s using full screen, arrow
          keys, highlighting, etc. Available by anonymous FTP from
          ftp2.cc.ukans.edu.
          
   Tom Fine's perlWWW
          A tty-based browser written in perl. Available by anonymous FTP
          from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu in the directory pub/w3browser
          as the file w3browser-0.1.shar.
          
   For VMS
          Dudu Rashty's full screen client based on VMS's SMG screen
          management routines. Available by anonymous FTP from
          vms.huji.ac.il in the directory www/www_client.
          
   Emacs w3-mode
          W3 browse mode for emacs. Uses multiple fonts when used with
          Lemacs or Epoch. See the documentation. Available by anonymous
          FTP from moose.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3 as
          the files w3.tar.Z and extras.tar.Z.
          
  4.3.8: BATCH-MODE "BROWSERS"
  
   Batch mode browser
          A batch-mode "browser", url_get, which is available through the
          URL http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/test/zippy/url_get.html. It
          can be retrieved via anonymous FTP to ftp.cc.utexas.edu, as the
          file /pub/zippy/url_get.tar.Z. This package is intended for use
          in cron jobs and other settings in which fetching a page in a
          command-line fashion is useful.
          
4.4: How can I access the web through a firewall?

   For information on using NCSA Mosaic from behind a firewall, please
   read the following. In general, browsers can be made useful behind
   firewalls through the use of a package called "SOCKS"; the source must
   be modified slightly and rebuilt to accommodate this. Whenever
   possible, work with your network administrators to solve the
   problem, not against them.
   
   An excerpt from the NCSA Mosaic FAQ:
   
   NCSA Mosaic requires a direct internet connection to work, but some
   folks have put together a package that works behind firewalls. This is
   completely unsupported by NCSA, but here is the latest announcement:
   
   
     November 15, 1993: C&C Software Technology Center (CSTC) of NEC
     Systems Lab has made available a version of SOCKS, a package for
     running Internet clients from behind firewalls without breaching
     security requirements, that includes a suitably modified version of
     Mosaic for X 2.0. Beware: such a version is not supported by NCSA;
     we can't help with questions or problems arising from the
     modifications made by others. But, we encourage you to check it
     out if it's interesting to you. Questions and problem notifications
     can be sent to Ying-Da Lee (ylee@syl.dl.nec.com).
     
   
   
4.5: What is on the web?

   Currently accessible through the web:
     * anything served through gopher
     * anything served through WAIS
     * anything on an FTP site
     * anything on Usenet
     * anything accessible through telnet
     * anything in hytelnet
     * anything in hyper-g
     * anything in techinfo
     * anything in texinfo
     * anything in the form of man pages
     * sundry hypertext documents
       
   
   
  4.5.1: HOW DO I FIND OUT WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEB?
  
   The unofficial newspaper of the World Wide Web is What's New With NCSA
   Mosaic (URL is
   http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html),
   which carries announcements of new servers on the web and also of new
   web-related tools. This should be in your hot list if you're not using
   Mosaic (which can access it directly through the help menu).
   
  4.5.2: WHERE IS THE SUBJECT CATALOG OF THE WEB?
  
   There are several. There is no mechanism inherent in the web which
   forces the creation of a single catalog (although there is work
   underway on automatic mechanisms to catalog web sites). The best-known
   catalog, and the first, is The WWW Virtual Library (URL is
   http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html),
   maintained by CERN. The Virtual Library is a good place to find
   resources on a particular subject, and has separate maintainers for
   many subject areas.
   
   There is also a newer cataloging system called ALIWEB that requires
   very little effort to maintain and is growing rapidly.
   
  4.5.3: HOW CAN I SEARCH THROUGH ALL WEB SITES?
  
   Several people have written robots which create indexes of web sites
   -- including sites which have not arranged to be mentioned in the
   newspapers and catalogs above. (Before writing your own robot, please
   read the section on robots.)
   
   Here are a few such automatic indexes you can search:
     * WebCrawler (URL is
       http://www.biotech.washington.edu/WebQuery.html) builds an
       impressively complete index; on the other hand, since it indexes
       the content of documents, it may find many links that aren't
       exactly what you had in mind.
     * World Wide Web Worm (URL is
       http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html) builds its
       index based on page titles and URL contents only. This is somewhat
       less inclusive, but pages it finds are more likely to be an exact
       match with your needs.
       
   You can read about other robots in the robots section.
   
4.6: How can I save an inline image to disk?

   
   
   Here are two ways:
   
   1. Turn on "load to local disk" in your browser, if it has such an
   option; then reload images. You'll be prompted for filenames instead
   of seeing them on the screen. Be sure to shut it off when you're done
   with it.
   
   2. Choose "view source" and browse through the HTML source; find the
   URL for the inline image of interest to you; copy and paste it into
   the "Open URL" window. This should load it into your image viewer
   instead, where you can save it and otherwise muck about with it.
   
4.7: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?

   
   
   This piece of wisdom donated by Hunter Monroe:
   
   This section explains how to install sound on a PC which already has a
   working version of Mosaic for Microsoft Windows. Be warned in advance
   that the results may be poor.
   
   To get Mosaic to produce sound out of the PC speaker, first, you need
   a driver for the speaker. You can get the Microsoft speaker driver
   from the URL ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE or by
   doing an Archie search to find it somewhere else. SPEAK.EXE is a
   self-extracting file. Copy the speak.exe file to a new directory, and
   then type "SPEAK" at the DOS prompt. Do not put the file SPEAKER.DRV
   in a separate directory from OEMSETUP.INF.
   
   Now, you need to install the driver. In Windows, from the Program
   Manager choose successively Main/Control Panel/Drivers/Add/Unlisted or
   updated drivers/(enter path of SPEAK.EXE)/PC Speaker. At this point
   some strange sounds come out as the driver is initialized. Change the
   settings to improve the sound quality on the various sounds: tada,
   chimes, etc. Click OK when you are finished and choose the Restart
   windows option.
   
   Having installed the speaker driver, you will now get sounds whenever
   you start Windows, make a mistake, or exit Windows. If you do not want
   this, from the Main/Control Panel/Sounds menu, make sure there is no X
   next to "Enable System Sounds."
   
   Now, you need a sound viewer program that Mosaic can call to display
   sounds. NCSA unfortunately recommend WHAM, which does not work well
   with a PC speaker. Get the program WPLANY instead. You can find a copy
   nearby with an Archie search on the string "wplny"; the current
   version is WPLNY09B.ZIP. For details on archie and other basic issues
   related to FTP, please read the Usenet newsgroup
   news.announce.newusers.
   
   Move the zip file to a new directory, and use an unzip program like
   pkunzip to unzip it, producing the files WPLANY.EXE and WPLANY.DOC.
   Then edit the MOSAIC.INI file to remove the "REM" before the line
   "TYPE9=audio/basic". Then, you need lines in the section below that
   read something like: audio/basic="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls"
   audio/wav="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" where you have filled in the
   correct path for wplany.exe. The MOSAIC.INI file delivered with Mosaic
   may have NOTEPAD.EXE on the audio/basic line, but this will not work.
   Now, restart Mosaic, and you should now be able to produce sounds. To
   check this, with Mosaic choose File/Local File/\WINDOWS\*.WAV and then
   try to play TADA.WAV. Then, you might try the Mosaic Demo document for
   some .AU sounds, but you are lucky if your speaker produces something
   you can understand.
   
4.8: I have a Windows PC or Macintosh. Why can't I access WAIS URLs?

   
   
   This answer provided by Michael Grady (m-grady@uiuc.edu):
   
   The version of Mosaic for X has "wais client" code built-in to it.
   This was relatively easy for the developers to do, because there was
   already a set of library routines for talking to WAIS available for
   Unix as "public domain" (freeWAIS). I don't think there is such a
   library of routines for PC/Windows or Mac, which would make it much
   more difficult for the Mosaic versions for Windows and the Mac to add
   "wais client" capability. Therefore, at least for now, neither the
   Windows or Mac versions of Mosaic support direct query of a WAIS
   server (i.e. can act as wais clients themselves).
   
4.9: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers working...

   ... No matter what no matter what I do to my .mailcap and .mime.types
   files?
   
   Answer provided by Ronald E. Daniel (rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov):
   
   Mosaic only looks at the .mime.types file if it has no idea what the
   document's type is. This is actually a very rare situation.
   Essentially all servers now use the HTTP/1.0 protocol, which means
   that they tell Mosaic (or other browsers) what the document's MIME
   Content-type is. The servers use a file very much like Mosaic's
   .mime.types file to infer the Content-type from the filename's
   extension.
   
   It is pretty simple to find out if this really is the problem. Use
   telnet to talk to the server and find out if it is assigning a MIME
   type to the document in question. Here's an example, looking at the
   home page for my server. (idaknow: is my shell prompt)

  idaknow: telnet www.acl.lanl.gov 80  // Connect to the httpd server
  Trying 128.165.148.3 ...
  Connected to www.acl.lanl.gov.
  Escape character is '^]'.
  HEAD /Home.html HTTP/1.0             // replace Home.html with your document
                                       // you supply the blank line
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK                      // the rest of this comes from the
serve
r  Date: Wednesday, 25-May-94 19:18:11 GMT
  Server: NCSA/1.1
  MIME-version: 1.0
  Content-type: text/html              // Here's the MIME Content-type
  Last-modified: Monday, 16-May-94 16:21:58 GMT
  Content-length: 1727

  Connection closed by foreign host.
  idaknow:

   In the example above, /Home.html will get
   http://www.acl.lanl.gov/Home.html.
   
   Normally servers will be configured to supply a Content-type of
   text/plain if they don't know what else to do. If this is the problem
   you are having, take a look at the TypesConfig documentation for
   NCSA's httpd. You can have the server look at the filename extension,
   supply the correct Content-type, then use your local .mailcap file to
   tell Mosaic what viewer to use to look at the document.
   
4.10: Hey, I know, I'll write a WWW-exploring robot! Why not?

   Programs that automatically traverse the web can be quite useful, but
   have the potential to make a serious mess of things. Robots have been
   written which do a "breadth-first" search of the web, exploring many
   sites in a gradual fashion instead of aggressively "rooting out" the
   pages of one site at a time. Some of these robots now produce
   excellent indexes of information available on the web.
   
   But others have written simple depth-first searches which, at the
   worst, can bring servers to their knees in minutes by recursively
   downloading information from CGI script-based pages that contain an
   infinite number of possible links. (Often robots can't realize this!)
   Imagine what happens when a robot decides to "index" the CONTENTS of
   several hundred mpeg movies. Shudder.
   
   The moral: a robot that does what you want may already exist; if it
   doesn't, please study the document World Wide Web Robots, Wanderers
   and Spiders (URL is:
   http://web.nexor.co.uk/mak/doc/robots/robots.html) and learn about the
   emerging standards for exclusion of robots from areas in which they
   are not wanted. You can also read about existing robots there.
   
4.11: How do I send newsgroup posts in HTML to my web client?

   How to do this depends greatly on your system; if you have a Mac or
   Windows system, the answer is completely different. But, as food for
   thought, here is a simple shell script I use on my Unix account to
   send posts from rn and related newsreaders to Lynx. Put this text in
   the file "readwebpost" and use the "chmod" command to make it
   executable, then put it somewhere in your path (such as your personal
   bin directory):

#!/bin/sh
echo \ > .article.html
cat >> .article.html
echo \ >> .article.html
lynx .article.html
Then add the following line to your .rnmac file (create it if you
don't already have one):

W     |readwebpost %C

Now, when you press "W" while reading a post in rn, a message will be sent to
Lynx, and the links enclosed in it will be live.



Larry W. Virden provides the following version which invokes Mosaic
instead, and is also capable of communicating with an already-running
copy of Mosaic instead of launching another. (You can use the same
rn macro as above, invoking "goto-xm" instead of "readwebpost".)
Read the comments for details on the assumptions made by the script.

#! /bin/sh
# goto-xm, by Joseph T. Buck
# Modified heavily by Larry W. Virden
# Script for use with newsreaders such as trn.  Piping the article
# through this command causes xmosaic to pop up, pointing to the
# article.  If an existing xmosaic (version 1.1 or later) exists,
# the USR1 method will be used to cause it to point to the correct
# article, otherwise a new one will be started.

# assumptions: ps command works as is on SunOS 4.1.x, may need changes
# on other platforms.

URL=`/bin/grep '^Message-ID:' | /bin/sed -e 's/.*</news:/' -e 's/>.*//'`
if [ "X$URL" = "X" ]; then
        echo "USAGE: $0 [goto] [once] < USENET_msg" >&2
        exit 1
fi

pid=`ps -xc | egrep '[Mm]osaic' | awk 'NR == 1 {print $1}'`
p=`which Mosaic`
gfile=/tmp/Mosaic.$pid

$p "$URL" &

if      [ "$#" -gt 0 ] ; then
  if    [ "$1" = "goto" -o "$1" = "same" ] ; then
        shift
        echo "goto"   > $gfile
  else
        echo "newwin" > $gfile
  fi
else
        echo "newwin" > $gfile
fi
/bin/awk 'END { printf "'"$URL"'" }' </dev/null >> $gfile

trap "echo signal encountered" 30
kill -USR1 $pid

exit 0



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 08-17-94                         Msg # 23554  
  To: ALL                              Conf: (2120) news.answers
From: Thomas Boutell                   Stat: Public
Subj: World Wide Web Frequently        Read: No
------------------------------------------------------------------------
@FROM   :boutell@netcom.com                                           
@SUBJECT:World Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Part 2/2    
@PACKOUT:08-17-94                                                     
Message-ID: <www/faq/part2_777166834@rtfm.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www,comp.infosystems.www.misc
comp.infosystems.www.users,comp.infosystems.www.providers
comp.infosystems.wais,comp.infosystems.gopher,comp.infosystems,alt.hypertext
comp.answers,alt.answers,news.answers
Organization: Nerdsholm

Archive-name: www/faq/part2
Last-modified: 1994/08/08

                   WORLD WIDE WEB FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

                   *** IMPORTANT ***
                   This is part 2 of a 2-part message.
                   Part 1 contains the table of contents
                   and sections 1 through 4. It should be the
                   previous message in this thread.


         5.1: INTRODUCTION: HOW CAN I PROVIDE INFORMATION TO THE WEB?

Information providers run programs that the browsers can obtain
hypertext from.  These programs can either be WWW servers that
understand the HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP (best if you are
creating your information database from scratch), "gateway" programs
that convert an existing information format to hypertext, or a
non-HTTP server that WWW browsers can access -- anonymous FTP or
gopher, for example.



To learn more about World Wide Web servers, you can consult
a

www server primer by Nathan Torkington, available at the URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-servers.html.



If you only want to provide information to local users, placing your
information in local files is also an option.  This means,
however,  that there can be no off-machine access.




5.2: Obtaining Servers
Servers are available for Unix, Macintosh, MS Windows, and VMS systems.
If you know of a server for another operating system,
please contact me.




See
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html for more
information on writing servers and gateways in general.



  5.2.1: UNIX SERVERS
  
   NCSA httpd
          NCSA has released a server, known as the NCSA httpd; it is
          available at the URL ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/ncsa_httpd.
          
   CERN httpd
          
        CERN's server is available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
   (URL is ftp://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Status.html) and many
   other places. Use your local copy of archie to search for "www" in
   order to find a nearby site.
   
   GN Gopher/HTTP server        The GN server is unique in that it can
   serve both WWW and Gopher clients (in their native modes). This is a
   good server for those migrating from Gopher to WWW, although it does
   not have the server-side-script capabilities of the NCSA and CERN
   servers. See the URL http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/.
   
   Perl server  There is also a server written in the Perl scripting
   language, called Plexus, for which documentation is available at the
   URL http://bsdi.com/server/doc/plexus.html.
   
  5.2.2: MACINTOSH SERVERS
  
   There is a server for the Macintosh, MacHTTP, available at the URL
   http://www.uth.tmc.edu/mac_info/machttp_info.html.
   
  5.2.3: MS WINDOWS AND WINDOWS NT SERVERS
  
   HTTPS (Windows NT)
          HTTPS is a server for Windows NT systems, both Intel and Alpha
          -- based. It is available via anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk
          in the directory pub/https (URL is
          ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https). (Be sure to download the
          version appropriate to your processor.) You can read a detailed
          announcement at the FTP site, or by using the URL
          ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https/https.txt.
          
   NCSA httpd for Windows
          The NCSA httpd for Windows has most of the features of the Unix
          version, including scripts (which generate pages on the fly
          based on user input). It is available by anonymous FTP from
          ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib directory as
          the file whtp11a6.zip, or at the URL
          ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib/whtp11a6.zip.
          
   SerWeb
          A simple, effective server for Windows writtten by Gustavo
          Estrella. Available by anonymous ftp from
          winftp.cica.indiana.edu (or one of its mirror sites, such as
          nic.switch.ch), as the file serweb03.zip, in the directory
          /pub/pc/win3/winsock.
          
          There is also a Windows NT version of SerWeb, available by
          anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk as /pub/serweb/serweb_i.zip.
          
   WEB4HAM
          Another Windows-based server, available by anonymous FTP from
          ftp.informatik.uni-hamburg.de as /pub/net/winsock/web4ham.zip.
          
  5.2.4: MSDOS SERVERS
  
   KA9Q NOS (nos11c.exe) is a internet server package for DOS that
   includes HTTP and Gopher servers. It can be obtained via anonymous FTP
   from one of the following sites:

inorganic5.chem.ufl.edu
biochemistry.cwru.edu

   
   
  5.2.5: VMS SERVERS
  
   CERN HTTP for VMS
          A port of the CERN server to VMS. Available at the URL
          http://delonline.cern.ch/disk$user/duns/doc/vms/distribution.ht
          ml.
          
   Region 6 Threaded HTTP Server
          A native VMS server which uses DECthreads(tm). This is a
          potentially major performance advantage because VMS has a high
          overhead for each process, which is a problem for the
          frequently-forking NCSA and CERN servers that began life under
          Unix. A multithreaded server avoids this overhead. Available at
          the URL
          http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html.
          
   
   
  5.2.6: AMIGA SERVERS
  
   NCSA's Unix server has been ported to the Amiga, and is bundled with
   the AMosaic browser. See the URL
   http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html for details.
   
5.3: Producing HTML documents

   HTML is the simple markup system used to create hypertext documents.
   There are three ways to produce HTML documents: writing them yourself,
   which is not a very difficult skill to acquire, using an HTML editor,
   which assists in doing the above, and converting documents in other
   formats to HTML. The following three sections cover these
   possibilities in sequence.
   
  5.3.1: WRITING HTML DOCUMENTS YOURSELF
  
   You can write an HTML document with any text editor. Try the "source"
   button of your browser to look at the HTML for a page you find
   particularly interesting. The odds are that it will be a great deal
   simpler than you would expect. If you're used to marking up text in
   any way (even red-pencilling it), HTML should be rather intuitive.
   
   A beginner's guide to HTML is available at the URL
   http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. You can
   also find a plain text version (at the URL
   ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ncsapubs/WWW/HTMLPrimer.txt) and a compressed
   Postscript version (at the URL
   ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ncsapubs/WWW/HTMLPrimer.txt). (Since the
   latter two are FTP URLs, you can fetch them by hand using FTP if you
   do not yet have a web browser.)
   
   There is also a good set of HTML documentation available at the URL
   http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/htmldoc.html.
   
   There is also an HTML primer by Nathan Torkington at the URL
   http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-html.html.
   
  5.3.2: HTML EDITORS
  
   Of course, most folks would still prefer to use a friendlier,
   graphical editor. Some editors are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
   Get), or close to it; others simply assist you in writing HTML by
   plugging in the desired markup tags for you from a menu.
   
   Fans of the EMACS editor can use EMACS and html-helper-mode , an EMACS
   "mode" for HTML editing (URL is http://www.reed.edu/~nelson/tools/).
   
   There is also another Emacs HTML mode, html-mode.el (URL is
   ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/elisp/html-mode.el).
   
   For Microsoft Windows users, there is an editor called HTML Assistant
   with features to assist in the creation of HTML documents. It can be
   had by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.dal.ca in the directory /htmlasst/.
   Read the README.1ST file in this directory for information on which
   files to download.
   
   A WYSIWYG editor for the Web, *SoftQuad HoTMetaL*, is available for
   downloading at NCSA and other Mosaic server sites. Many mirror sites
   exist; if you can't get through to one, try another, don't give up!
   That's what mirror sites are for. (Also be sure to use the copy
   closest to you geographically if possible.)
   
   Known mirrors:
     *
       ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad/sqhotmetal-1.0.tar.
       gz
     * ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/SGML/HoTMetaL
     * ftp://sgml1.ex.ac.uk/SoftQuad
     * ftp://doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/packages/WWW/ncsa/contrib/SoftQuad
     *
       ftp://askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/infosystems/mosaic/contrib/Sof
       tQuad
     * ftp://ftp.cs.concordia.ca/pub/www
       
   You need a Sun SPARC or Microsoft Windows system and 6MB of disk (6MB
   of RAM minimum for MS Windows). Because it is context-sensitive,
   HoTMetaL guides users in creating new HTML documents and in cleaning
   up old ones. A Publish command changes appropriate SRC and HREF
   attributes from local paths to http locations. For more information,
   FTP the README file from the same directory, or send email to
   hotmetal@sq.com. A HoTMetaL Pro commercially supported version is
   available for purchase from SoftQuad and its resellers.
   
   An editor for all X users: TkWWW (listed above under X browsers)
   supports WYSIWYG HTML editing; and since it's a browser, you can try
   out links immediately after creating them.
   
   Also for X users, there is a package called htmltext which supports
   WYSIWYG HTML editing. More information is available at the URL
   http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/njw/htmltext/htmltext.html.
   
   For Macintosh users, there is evidently a near-WYSIWYG package called
   HTML Editor (URL is http://dragon.acadiau.ca:1667/~giles/HTML_Editor).
   
   
   Also for Macintosh users, the BBEdit HTML extensions allow the BBEdit
   and BBEdit Lite text editors for the Macintosh to conveniently edit
   HTML documents. (URL is
   http://www.uji.es/bbedit-html-extensions.html.) You can also obtain
   the extensions package by anonymous ftp from sumex-aim.stanford.edu as
   info-mac/bbedit-html-ext-b3.hqx.
   
   There is an alternative BBEdit extension package available as well; it
   is available by FTP at the URL
   ftp://ctipsych.york.ac.uk/CTI_FTP/pub/BBEdit/BBEdit_HTML_Tools.sea.hqx
   .
   
   NCSA's List of Filters and Editors, for which the URL is
   http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/faq-software.html#ed
   itors, mentions several editors, including two for MS Windows. In some
   cases, the "editor" amounts to a set of macros for an existing word
   processor, which can provide a near-WYSIWYG environment.
   
   Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters; certain
   operating systems won't allow mixed case on the command line, or will
   only allow it if it is quoted (VMS), so if you are launching Lynx or
   another client and specifying a URL at the command line, try quoting
   the URL in double-quotes ("URL").
   
   Another option, if you have an SGML editor, is to use it with the HTML
   DTD .
   
  5.3.3: CONVERTING OTHER FORMATS TO HTML
  
   There is a collection of filters for converting your existing
   documents (in TeX and other non-HTML formats) into HTML automatically,
   including filters that can allow more or less WYSIWYG editing using
   various word processors:
   
   Rich Brandwein and Mike Sendall's List at CERN. The URL is
   http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Tools/Filters.html.
   
   (Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters; certain
   operating systems such as VMS require you to quote mixed-case URLs
   when launching a borwser from the command line. This is NOT a bug in
   the browser.)
   
   There is also a Word for Windows template for writing HTML documents,
   available at the URL http://www.gatech.edu/word_html/release.htm.
   
5.4: How do I publicize my work?

   There are several things you can do to publicize your new HTML server
   or other offering:
     * Submit it to the NCSA What's New Page at the URL
       http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html
       (see the page for details on how to submit your listing!).
     * Post it to the newsgroup comp.infosystems.announce. Please read
       the group first to get a feel for the contents. You should not
       post to comp.infosystems.www.users,.misc,.providers, etc., but if
       you feel compelled to do so, please choose .misc as announcements
       are of interest to both providers and users (and those who wear
       both hats).
     * Submit it to the maintainers of various catalogs, such as the WWW
       Virtual Library (at the URL
       http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html)
       and the ALIWEB index (at the URL
       http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html).
       
5.5: Can I buy space on an existing server?

   Yes, you can. A list of sites offering WWW space for lease is
   available (at the URL
   http://ginko.cecer.army.mil:8000/hypernews/www-leasing.html).
   
  5.6.1: HOW DO I SET UP A CLICKABLE IMAGE MAP?
  
   
   
   There are really two issues here: how to indicate in HTML that you
   want an image to be clickable, and how to configure your server to do
   something with the clicks returned by Mosaic, Chimera, and other
   clients capable of delivering them.
   
   You can read about image maps and the NCSA server at the URL
   http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/admin/Imagemap.html.
   
  5.6.2: HOW DO I MAKE A "LINK" THAT DOESN'T LOAD A NEW PAGE?
  
   
   
   Such links are useful when a form is intended to perform some action
   on the server machine without sending new information to the client,
   or when a user has clicked in an undefined area in an image map; these
   are just two possibilities.
   
   Rob McCool of NCSA provided the following wisdom on the subject:

Yechezkal-Shimon Gutfreund (sg04@gte.com) wrote:
: Ok, here is another bizzare request from me:

: I am currently running scripts which I "DO NOT" want to return
: any visible result. That is, not text/plain, not text/HTML, not
: image/gif. The entire results are the side effects of the
: script and nothing should be returned to the viewer.

: It would be nice to have an internally supported null viewer
: so that I could do this, more "cleanly" (ok, ok, I hear your groans).

   
   
   HTTP now supports a response code of 204, which is no operation. Some
   browsers such as Mosaic/X 2.* support it. To use it, make your script
   a nph script and output an HTTP/1.0 204 header. Something like:
   
   HTTP/1.0 204 No response Server: Myscript/NCSA httpd 1.1
   
   (You can learn more about nph scripts from the NCSA server
   documentation at the URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs.)
   Essentially they are scripts that handle their own HTTP response
   codes.
   
  5.6.3: WHERE CAN I LEARN HOW TO CREATE FILL-OUT FORMS?
  
   You can read about the Common Gateway Interface (at the URL
   http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/cgi/). In addition to documenting the
   standard interface for which scripts can now be written for both NCSA
   and CERN-derived servers, these pages also cover HTML forms and how to
   handle the results on the server side.
   
    5.6.3.1: How can I create hidden fields in forms (keeping state)?
    
   Use INPUT TYPE=hidden. An example:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=state VALUE="hidden info to be returned with form">

   By now, most if not all browsers can handle the hidden type. Note that
   "hidden" doesn't mean "secret"; the user can always click on "view
   source".
   
  5.6.4: HOW DO I COMMENT AN HTML DOCUMENT?
  
   
   
   Use the <!-- tag at the beginning of EACH line commented out; close
   this for EACH line with the --> tag. Note that comments do not nest,
   and the sequence "--" may not appear inside a comment except as part
   of the closing --> tag.
   
   You should not try to use this to "comment out" HTML that would
   otherwise be shown to the user, since some browsers (notably Mosaic)
   will still pay attention to tags inside the comment and close it
   prematurely.
   
   Thanks to Joe English for clearing up this issue.
   
  5.6.5: HOW CAN I CREATE DECENT-LOOKING TABLES AND STOP USING <PRE>...
</PRE>?
  
   Tables are a standard feature in HTML Level 3, a new version of HTML.
   Unfortunately, they are at present implemented only by the Viola and
   Emacs-W3 browsers, to my knowledge.
   
   However, there is a way to use HTML Level 3 tables now and convert
   them automatically to HTML, allowing you to design proper tables and
   install those pages directly when table support arrives in the
   majority of clients. You can do this using the html+tables package, by
   Brooks Cutter (bcutter@paradyne.com), which is available for anonymous
   ftp from sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
   pub/packages/infosystems/WWW/tools/html+tables.shar. This package
   requires the shell language Perl, which is primarily used on Unix
   systems but is also available for other systems (such as MSDOS
   machines). html+tables accepts HTML Level 3 and outputs html using the
   <PRE>...</PRE> construct to represent tables, allowing you to write
   HTML Level 3 now, knowing that it will look better when clients are
   ready for it.
   
  5.6.6: WHAT IS HTML LEVEL 3 AND WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT IT?
  
   HTML Level 3, also known as HTML+, is an enhanced version of HTML
   designed to address some of the limitations of HTML. HTML Level 3
   supports true tables, right-justified text, centered text, line breaks
   that do not double space, and many other desired features.
   
   However, most clients support only a handful of HTML Level 3 features
   (such as forms in Mosaic) at this time.
   
   To learn more about HTML Level 3, you can examine a draft
   specification for it (at the URL
   ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-raggett-www-html-00.txt)
   or a Postscript version of the same draft (at the URL
   ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-raggett-www-html-00.ps).
   You can also access information about new developments in HTML at the
   CERN server (at the URL
   http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Markup/Markup.html).
   
   (HTML Level 1 is the original version. HTML Level 2 is essentially the
   same, but with the addition of forms.)
   
  5.6.7: HOW CAN I MAKE TRANSPARENT GIFS?
  
   Transparent GIFs are useful because they appear to blend in smoothly
   with the user's display, even if the user has set a background color
   that differs from that the developer expected.
   
   There is a document explaining transparent GIFs available at the URL
   http://melmac.harris-atd.com/transparent_images.html. You can fetch
   the program giftrans by anonymous ftp from ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de at
   the path /pub/net/www/tools/giftrans.c.
   
  5.6.8: HOW COME MAILTO: URLS DON'T WORK?
  
   The mailto: URL is an innovation found in Lynx and a few other
   browsers. It is not yet found in Mosaic, the most popular browser.
   Hopefully it will be present in future versions. In the meantime, you
   can set up forms which send mail to you; there is documentation on
   this at the URL http://siva.cshl.org/email/index.html.
   
  5.6.9: HOW CAN I RESTRICT AND CONTROL ACCESS TO MY SERVER?
  
   All major servers have features that allow you to limit access to
   particular sites, and many clients have authentication features that
   allow you to identify specific users. There is a tutorial on security
   and user authentication with the NCSA server and Mosaic available,
   written by Marc Andreessen (URL is
   http://wintermute.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8080/auth-tutorial/tutorial.html). See
   your server documentation for further information.
   
  5.6.10: WHICH FORMAT IS BETTER FOR WWW IMAGE PURPOSES, JPEG OR GIF?
  
   
   
   JPEG does a better job with realistic images such as scanned
   photographs. Most browsers cannot handle inline JPEGs, however, so you
   must link to them as external images (using a regular &ltA HREF...>
   instead of <IMG SRC...>.
   
   GIF does a better job with crisp, sharp images, such as those
   typically used to construct buttons, graphs and the like. All browsers
   that can display graphics at all can display GIFs inline.
   
  5.6.11: HOW CAN I MIRROR PART OF ANOTHER SERVER?
  
   Scripts are available to do this, but at this time they are not very
   friendly to the server you are attempting to mirror; their behavior
   resembles that of the more poorly written WWW robots. If you are
   trying to improve access times to a distant server, you will likely
   find the "proxy" capabilities of CERN's WWW server to be a more
   effective and general solution to your problem.
   
                      6: WHAT NEWSGROUPS DISCUSS THE WEB?
                                       
   You can find discussion of World Wide Web topics in three newsgroups,
   and one newsgroup which will soon be removed:
   
   comp.infosystems.www.users
          A forum for the discussion of WWW client software and its use
          in contacting various Internet information sources. New user
          questions, client setup questions, client bug reports,
          resource-discovery questions on how to locate information on
          the web that can't be found by the means detailed in the FAQ
          and comparison between various client packages are among the
          acceptable topics for this group.
          
   comp.infosystems.www.providers
          A forum for the discussion of WWW server software and the use
          of said software to present information to users. General
          server design, setup questions, server bug reports, security
          issues, HTML page design and other concerns of information
          providers are among the likely topics for this group.
          
   comp.infosystems.www.misc
          A forum for general discussion of WWW (World Wide Web)- related
          topics that are NOT covered by the other newsgroups in the
          hierarchy. This will likely include discussions of the Web's
          future, politicking regarding changes in the structure and
          protocols of the web that affect both clients and servers, et
          cetera.
          
   comp.infosystems.www (DEFUNCT)
          The old catch-all newsgroup, which may still exist on your
          system but will be removed within three months of this writing
          (June 7th, 1994).
          
   
   
                            7: I WANT TO KNOW MORE
                                       
   
   
   To find out more, use the web. This FAQ hopefully provides enough
   information for you to locate and install a browser on your system. If
   you have system specific questions regarding FTP, networking and the
   like, please consult newsgroups relevant to your particular hardware
   and operating system!
   
   Once you're up and running, you may wish to consult the World Wide Web
   Primer by Nathan Torkington. It is available at the URL
   http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-primer.html.
   
   Later you may return to this FAQ for answers to some of the more
   advanced questions. I encourage you to check out the changes listed
   early in the document each time the FAQ appears.
   
                                  8: CREDITS
                                       
     * Thomas Boutell boutell@netcom.com
     * Nathan Torkington Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz
     * Marc Andreessen marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
     * Tony Johnson

