Useful Internet Information

Resources on the Internet

• Hypertext document
  • Address on location line of browser starts with http://
• Remote log on to another computer
  • Address on location line of browser starts with telnet://
• Documents obtained from a remote computer
  • Address on location line of browser starts with ftp://
• E-mail
  • Access using Eudora; browser mail
• List server: a special interest e-mail mailing list
  • Access along with other e-mail
• Gopher: A text-based information system
  • Address on location line of browser starts with gopher://
• Usenet news: a special interest information source
  • Access using newsreader (often included with browser)
• Audio and video
  • Access using Real Audio or other programs
• Conferencing and telephony
  • Access using recent versions of browsers such as Netscape Communicator

Deconvoluting Addresses

• E-mail address: username@host computer.next-level domain.highest-level domain
  • Common highest-level domains: edu (educational site), com (for-profit commercial site), org nonprofit site, gov (government site), mil (military site)
• URL (Universal Resource Locator): resource://server/path/document/
  • Common resources are http, telnet, ftp, and gopher

Browsers

• A program that serves as an interface between the Internet and you which allows easy access to various resources (ftp, e-mail, USENET newsgroups, etc.) without having to know the intricacies of linking with that source
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer
    • http://www.microsoft.com
  • Netscape Navigator
    • http://home.netscape.com

Helpers and Plug-ins

• Programs from third-party developers that can be linked to the browser allowing interaction with new types of information
  • Places to obtain further helper programs or plug-ins:
    • Plug-ins: http://browserwatch.internet.com/plug-in.html
    • Macintosh Helpers: http://www.tiac.net/users/mdw/imap/intro.html

Search Engines

• Directories
  • Entries are indexed by humans into categories; limited number of sites but useful for finding initial or well-known sites
    • Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/)
      • Can get access to other search engines from Yahoo!
    • Netscape (http://home.netscape.com/)
• Indices
  • Entries are found by computer search; much more inclusive but often many useless reference are found
    • AltaVista (http://altavista.digital.com/)
    • Excite! (http://www.excite.com/)

Some Useful Sites

• Ursinus Resources
  • Ursinus College Site
    • http://www.ursinus.edu
  • Myrin Library Catalog
    • From Ursinus page: Pick Library Resources and MBS On-line
    • http://www.ursinus.edu/myrin/lib_resources.html
  • Chemistry Department Page
    • http://acad.ursinus.edu/~chemistry/
• Chemistry Resources
  • ChemFinder (Info on chemical compounds)
    • http://chemfinder.camsoft.com/
  • Chemical Information (Index of chemistry sources)
    • http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/
    • http://www.wiley.com/college/webercises/
  • Medline Access (Reference database of biological or medical interest)
    • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
  • Spectral and Physical Information Databases
    • http://webbook.nist.gov/
    • http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/SDBS/menu-e.html

Reference Example

• General format (The ACS Style Guide (2nd ed.), p 212)
  • Author (if known). Title of Web page. URL (accessed date)
• Example
  • Home page for Eric J. Williamsen, Ursinus College. http://acad.ursinus.edu/~ewilliamsen/ (accessed 22 January 1998)