Getting more out of the Internet

Looking beyond what VSNL has to offer

One of the pitfalls of writing for a monthly magazine is that you sometimes get caught in a "time warp" - by the time your words appear in print, things have changed.

Such was the case with the February episode of COMversations. As the magazine went to print, VSNL decided to change its Internet operations dramatically - at least in Bombay. By the time you read this, the changes will probably have appeared in other cities as well.

My apologies to those who got affected by this.

Bug Fixes

In last month's COMversations, I showed a way of getting to read newsgroups via VSNL's shell accounts. Since then, the site I mentioned (luzskru.cpcnet.com) has apparantly started rejecting connects from VSNL. So use the alternative site shts.seed.net.tw instead. The rest of the procedure remains the same.

Those users who are on the Bombay VSNL server cannot delete their files because VSNL decided that its users are unworthy of the "rm" command used to do this. The truth is that VSNL has simply renamed the command to "mrr" - don't ask me why. Anyway, to delete a file, type "mrr filename".

Doing Business via VSNL

I receive calls almost everyday from people who wish to get their businesses onto the Internet. Almost all of them are looking at VSNL's Gateway Internet Access Services (GIAS) as the platform to achieving this.

Well, I have bad news for you - it is simply not possible to do any serious business via the GIAS - at least not in its present form. The problem is that it basically offers you connectivity to the Internet in a very limited form. I like to refer to these services as "toys" - and with very good reason. They allow you to "play around" on the Internet, but when it comes to doing serious business, they are just plain useless.

The problem is, of course, that while you can see things on the Internet using VSNL's services, people can't see you. The most common way these days to make people aware of your existance is through World Wide Web Homepages, but VSNL has made no such provision for its users - not even for the ones paying through their noses for TCP/IP accounts.

However, not everything is lost. There are ways by which you can advertise your presence, by contracting with "almost free" services abroad (it will be a long time before we see such services here in India).

Getting WWW pages (almost) for free

One such place is WWW.TRIPOD.COM. This service allows you to put up upto 100K of webpages for free! Just use your browser (like Lynx) to connect to www.tripod.com, and follow instructions. Be aware though that you have just a single page at your disposal, and that you are limited to text-based stuff (though text-enhancements such as boldface, italics and various "headline" styles are available to you).

You need to know how to build an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) page, though. This is actually quite easy. I suggest that you pick up a copy of "HTML for Dummies" (published by Pustak Mahal) from your local bookstore. Most people will be productive in a few minutes. To test your pages locally, you will need a web browser (such as Netscape) which you can download from the web (try home.netscape.com). Once you have things in shape, get online to www.homeless.com and paste in your page - that's all there is to it.

Getting more Internet Services...

There are several "freenet" services available on the Internet that will give you shell accounts that you can use much more intelligently than VSNL's toys. One of them is ARBORNET.ORG. Use Telnet to get there, and follow the instructions. Once you have created yourself an account, you will be able to do much more than with VSNL's services.

Using a services such as Arbornet has several advantages, but one really nice one is that you can use it as a permanent mail address. All you have to do is to create a file named ".forward" in the home directory, that contains a single line of text - your forwarding e-mail address.

For example, supposing your current "real" e-mail address is XYZ@GIASDL01.VSNL.NET.IN, you put this single line of text into that file (a simple "echo xyz@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>.forward" is enough to do this). Now, any mail received at Arbornet will be forwarded to your "real" e-mail address. If you change your Internet Service Provider (ISP) tomorrow, all you have to do is to change the contents of the .forward file, and mail will begin going to your new address. Now, all you have to do is to publicise your email address with reference to Arbornet, and need never need to worry again about losing your mail. If at any time you lose access to your primary Internet account, you simply use another account to telnet to Arbornet - all your mail messages are also stored as copies over there!

Another similar service is pobox.com. POBOX is just a mail-forwarding service, and is free for a limited time (after that, you have to pay a ridiculously small amount). It also has a few other great features, including domain registration (they can register a domain name such as MYCOMPANY.COM for you), so that all mail addressed to "user@mycompany.com" is automatically forwarded to an e-mail address of your choice! Very professional, and very cheap! Our editor, PKR, has been using this service for some time and is all smiles. Use your web browser and connect to pobox.com to check out more details.

An alternate Indian Internet provider - ERnet

Recently, the Indian Government decided that VSNL wasn't going to be the only Internet provider in India. This throws up some interesting possibilities, and one became immediately apparent when ERnet, India's first "real" presence on the Internet, announced that it was no longer going to restrict itself to Educational institutions only.

ERnet has been around since 1988, and offers much more effective services to its clients. With restrictions on commercial services lifted, ERNet can now offers a much wider range of effective business-oriented services, including web services, UUCP-based mail accounts (considered to be the primary business requirement when it comes to the Internet) and more. They also offer VSAT based services to those locations that are out of reach of regular telephone networks.

ERNet is not cheap, but if you are a business house serious about getting online, check them out. Having been around for so long, they have much more experience in what they are doing (in fact, even VSNL is heavily dependant on ERnet for some of their Internet activities!)

Send a message to info@doe.ernet.in for more details about ERnet. This is an automated message service that will respond with an introductory message giving you some useful information about ERnet and its services, as well as pointers towards other sources of information. You can also check out their web pages at http://mahavir.doe.ernet.in.

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OK, that's it for this time. A word of thanks to all the readers who send me e-mail pointing me towards interesting web sites, and sharing tips and tricks they have come across. Keep them coming!!

Many of you have written asking where they can get more tips and tricks. The answer is, of course, via the PCQO BBS (+91-11-6221734) and my own CiX BBS (+91-80-3341137) - that's where all the savvy Internet travellers hang out sharing their secrets. Give it a try!

Cheerio!