Internet Resources for the Environmental
Professional
Internet Resources for the Environmental
ProfessionalOriginal Publication Date: January 1996
In general, the Internet is an addictive waste of time. With over 25 million users world wide using 2 million host computers on 15,000 networks, your experience of cruising the Internet can often resemble a fraternity party. Although this is fine for some Friday entertainment of the net, it does not work well when you are trying to find the latest Federal Register citation concerning lender liability for underground storage tank leaks while facing a client imposed deadline.
In contrast, when used selectively, the Internet can be an efficient source of timely information, as well as a vehicle for inexpensive, global communication. It can deliver quick and convenient (not to mention inexpensive) email, provide access to professionals ready to answer your questions on any topic, provide real time discussions, provide electronic (and therefore searchable) copies of documents, provide access to library catalogs, provide thousands (or possibly hundreds of thousands) of free or inexpensive software applications, provide daily news and information filtered to your specifications, and provide electronic copies of books, magazines and newspapers. All to your desk, where ever, and when ever, you want it.
No longer can the practicing environmental professional limit continuing education to monthly periodicals or that coveted annual conference in California. Regulations and their interpretation change daily, new technologies are available at an increasing rate, and multi-media environmental problems require access to information on many disciplines. More importantly, your client, whether a paying customer or simply your boss, is demanding shorter turn-around times and more content for less money. This results in a need for rapid access to a wide range of information, a pretty good definition for the best that the Internet has to offer.
The Internet is a network of networks. Connecting to one network permits you to access and communicate with the other networks (to use the old television adage: some restrictions apply). Structurally, the Internet is a global connection of local networks, which are linked to regional networks (backbones), which in turn are linked to larger networks that are all linked together. The type of connections between these links, and the size and operation of each network, vary.
Its design has a lot to do with its history, the history of computers in general, and the current surge of interest in information access. But the basic premise of the network is that one computer wants to get information to another computer using links that may be unavailable at any given time (just overburdened or destroyed by war). From this background developed an extremely flexible and robust system for communicating and sharing information. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are already a member of this global village) it also developed a complex technical environment with its own language and protocols, some of which are daunting to the new user (newbie). The good news is that the Internet is getting more user friendly every day.
But while most descriptions of the Internet (including the one above) limit the definition to the connected networks (the now overused "information superhighway"), it is useful for the environmental professional to think in terms of the internet (small "i"). Some important resources of environmental information, such as government bulletin boards and some commercial services (such as the Chemical Information System), have no connection to the Internet, and are accessible only by a dedicated phone number. These services generally provide specialized information, and should not be overlooked as important resources.
For the environmental professional, the basic features of the Internet include:
Arguably the most frequently used feature of the Internet is the ability to communicate with other professionals around the world. Communication tools include one-to-one (email), one-to-many (subscription lists), and many-to-many (newsgroups) communication. It can occur "distantly", such as the delivery of messages for you to read later, or can be conducted in real-time (using Internet Relay Chat, or IRC). These messages can be limited to text, or can include graphics, spreadsheets, and video. They can be between a small group, or can include a wide audience with interests that range from the Simpsons to reports on UNIX version 4BSD related bugs.
As such, the Internet holds the promise of fast, universal communication. However, to date, although an estimated 30 million Americans are using the Internet in 1995, over 200 million Americans can only be reached by the U.S. mail, and your privacy with the postal service is arguably much better than your electronic privacy. In addition, email may take a few minutes to be delivered, it may take a few days, or even a week, depending on the load on the system, and when the recipient decides to turn on her computer and read her mail.
Remote access to computer systems world-wide can be accomplished using telnet. Remote access permits you to execute applications, such as modeling programs, on other systems. The advantage, or course, is that staff at multiple locations, including the newly popular tele-commuters, can access central programs.
But a more frequent use of telnet is to access bulletin boards and dedicated servers. For the environmental professional, the most common telnet session on a dedicated server is probably searching library catalogs. Most University collections, as well as the Library of Congress and the EPA Library, are available via telnet.
File transfer protocol (ftp) permits you to obtain application and data files from remote systems. Environmental programs are available from a number of sources, including the EPA, and hundreds of other free or inexpensive software programs (including games) are accessible using ftp. The most useful of these are the programs that make Internet communication and use easier, such as email and file transfer software.
Accessing a global repository of information is the real advantage of the Internet. But for all its promise of an information revolution, what the Internet often provides is a data deluge. And unfortunately, for that portion that is actually passed off as information, the vast majority of it is unedited, uncataloged, and unreviewed trivia, mixed with volumes and volumes of personal speculation. (After reading pages and pages of observations provided by a single person, I have found myself wondering
what some of the people who post to the Internet do for a living, and trying to figure out how I could get the kind of job that provides that much free time.). Given the volume of material available, this still leaves a tremendous amount of useful stuff on the Internet.
Clifford Stoll, a guru of the Internet and self proclaimed propeller head, argues that computers may turn out to be the cable TV of the 90's, the technology that promises revolution but delivers "a soluble tissue of nothingness". In his new book, "Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway", he argues that the "information highway is being sold to us as delivering information, but what it's really delivering is data...nobody stands behind it. Is the author a medical doctor or some bozo? I don't know, and they're behind a screen name anyway".
On-line libraries (used in the broad meaning to include any collection of information as well as traditional libraries) include more services that just lists of books and periodicals. Catalogues at traditional libraries are often real-time, permitting you to determine whether a particular volume is on the shelf, when it is due back, or what other locations carry it. In addition, libraries offer bibliographic databases, electronic texts, and key word searches of reference materials.
Access to information on the net does have, at times, significant restrictions. First, the information must be available on the Internet, and the host computer must be recognized by one of the search methods and/or listed on one of the directories you are searching. Given the speed at which connections change, keeping those searches and lists current is no small task. In fact, even with a concerted effort, only a fraction of the information available at the Library of Congress has been placed on the Internet.
Secondly, it must be identified in a way that is meaningful and searchable.
Part of the problem is that, unlike card catalogs that are cross referenced and grouped by related topic, on-line resource lists and catalogues rely on individual titles or a limited set of key words. Until a virtual librarian can provide the kind of indexing and referencing found in traditional libraries, searching the Internet requires a bit of art.
Whether the Internet is a black hole or a universal method of accessing information will depend on your skills in finding and using the net, and on how the network develops over the next few years. The technology holds the promise of high speed, world wide communication, but universal success will depend on simplifying access and indexing the information.
Besides playing some neat games, and loading your hard drive with programs you never knew you always needed, you can use the Internet to manage the torrent of information necessary to keep current in the environmental field. The Internet has yet to replace a well written text book (or, hopefully a good instructor) but it can assist in providing easy access to laws and regulations, court decisions, current peer review articles, EPA notices and press releases, and wire service stories on environmental issues or key customers. In addition, you can use it to obtain modeling software, and access the meeting minutes for professional organizations like the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA). You can even take environmental training seminars and collage courses from your desk top computer.
In addition to getting on the Internet to find and obtain this information, you can have a wide variety of environmental information automatically delivered each day to your email box. The full text of selected Federal Register notifications (organized by topic), or just the Table of Contents, can be provide for free on the same day it is released. Daily, a remote search engine can scan the Internet for any reference to environmental related topics (ex. hazardous waste management) and return summaries of all identified new entries so that you can obtain a full text copy, all for free. Monthly, the table of contents of major technical and popular press periodicals can be provided, with the option to order a full article by email or fax, all for a small fee. For a fee, news services can provide daily summaries of newspaper articles on environmental topics (a personalized newspaper) with the option of ordering the full article for a small additional fee.
These resources provide a method for keeping informed. More importantly, the Internet also provides a means of keeping in touch with other professionals. The ability to contact and share information with hydrogeologists, chemists, or attorneys around the world provides you with access to expertise that used to be limited to large corporations and universities. Daily, open discussions on technical topics provide an opportunity to lean, teach, argue or just listen. These exchanges are conducted in discussion groups and newsgroups, where you can either have the text delivered directly to you email box, or you can search archives for interesting "threads" (related postings).
As you can tell, the Internet permits you to focus information searching and retrieval to very specific topics. This can increase your efficiency and provide a much needed filter so that you can focus on your specialty. However, there is the danger of losing perspective in that type of refined atmosphere. Other information media, such as conferences and the popular press, offer the opportunity to serendipitously collide with related topics or to obtain local and regional information that may never get to the Internet.
To take advantage of the Internet you need, of course, a computer, a modem, communications software, and an account. Many new comers have found that obtaining and installing the necessary software is often the most difficult thing about getting on the Internet. This is becoming less of a problem since complete Internet connection kits are now universally available at software stores, and since subscription services have begun offering simplified Internet interfaces.
There are three basic methods of connecting to the Internet. With a modem and some software, all of these methods can be used to access the full extent of the Internet from your personal computer. But only one type of connection, the direct connection, is actually "on" the Internet.
The basic connection to the Internet is where a network has the ability to connect to other networks, but is not actually on the Internet. This is typically referred to as a gateway connection, and the server is generally a commercial service or a non-Internet network. Examples of this type of connection are America On-Line, Compuserve, and Dialog. Each provides some form of access to the Internet, but each is also a network unto itself, usually with its own dedicated software and organizational structure. The current trend is for gateways to establish direct connections to the Internet, thus making them look like the second type of connection. However, if they continue to operate their own network protocol, they will continue to access the Internet via a gateway.
In the second type of connection, your computer becomes a terminal for a remote computer that acts as your host. This host computer is actually on the Internet, and your computer is sending instructions to control various applications residing on that host.
The third type of connection provides direct access to the Internet. This type of connection avoids the "intermediate" host or server, and permits your computer to communicate directly on the Internet. There are actually two subtypes of direct connection. The first, the one used by host computers, is a dedicated line. The second is a dial-in connection. The dial in (or on-demand) direct connection permits you to use your local phone lines and a high speed modem (usually greater than 9600 baud) to use all of the Internet applications directly from your computer, but avoids the need for an expensive, dedicated phone line.
It is important to note that for the first two types of connection, your computer is not actually on the Internet. The host computer or server is on the Internet, while your computer is operating as a terminal for that host (terminal-emulation mode). Consequently, what you see happening on your screen is actually not happening on your computer, but is taking place on the remote server. There are some important implications to this arrangement. First, if you are attempting to transfer a file from Hong Kong, the file will actually end up on the host computer, not on your computer. Secondly, when ever you connect to a remote system (using either terminal emulation or a direct connection) it is the operating system of the host computer, and not your operating system, that you must use to navigate the Internet.
The first key to accessing the Internet is to install and operate the necessary hardware and software. The second key to successful operation of the Internet (and successful trouble shooting) is remembering which computer you are currently connected to, what is the operating system of that computer, and what type of connection you have.
Until recently, all of these features available on the Internet were accessed using several different software applications, each with a cumbersome text-based interface. Some of these applications I have already mentioned, such as telnet, and ftp (file transfer protocol). Others, such as archie, gopher, veronica, and WAIS are used to find, obtain and use the information, data and programs on the net. Although these tools are still valuable applications for specific tasks, information management on the Internet is fast becoming organized around a graphic-based interface called the World Wide Web (The Web or WWW). The Web not only simplifies the process of finding and accessing information by using "point-and-click" technology, but it provides the ability to link the text in one document with other related documents throughout the Internet.
Much of the popular press information about the Internet focuses on the Web. The growth of information available on the Web is phenomenal. However, to effectively use the Internet, the environmental professional should be able to use all of the applications mentioned above in addition to the Web. Although Web browsers will undoubtedly provide complete access in the near future, some of the more important environmental resources can still be best accessed using telnet, ftp, gopher and the other applications mentioned above. Consequently, here is a brief introduction to each of the Internet tools.
The first of these tools, archie, is a catalog of files used to find software that you already know exists. It is limited to publicly accessible software archives, and files in those archives, and therefore has limited applications in finding information or documents, and no ability to search for related items. Given a search string, archie will return a list of files or directories that include the search string, along with the name of the computer that contains that file or directory, and the appropriate pathname. It is then up to you to use another application (such as ftp) to obtain the file or search the directory.
Gopher is a menu based method of searching and retrieving all types of files (Although gopher was named after the University of Minnesota where is was developed, the name is doubly appropriate because the menu based approach permits you to burrow into archives in a gopher-like fashion) . It permits a great deal of flexibility in finding and searching, including an ability to search archie databases, telnet to sites, and automate some of the search tasks by using bookmarks.
One of the most powerful feature of gopher searches is Veronica (which stands for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized Archives). Veronica enables you to search gopherspace using Boolean queries.
WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers) uses key words to search over 500 indexed collections consisting of full text databases and libraries. In addition to providing powerful search capabilities, including natural language queries (although Boolean searches are not supported), it provides a special feature called relevance feedback. When you issue a search command you get a list of matching documents along with an estimate of their relevance. The relevance is based on the frequency with which the keyword phases are used, the proximity of keywords to each other, use of the words in the title versus to the text, etc.. You can then use the selected documents to find other documents that are similar.
The Web is not a specific system or part of the Internet, but rather a method of preparing, connecting and accessing files and resources on the Internet. The Web uses graphic-based browser (such as Mosaic and Netscape), but can also be accessed using text only interfaces (such as Lynx). The new Web browsers provide the ability to complete forms on-line, and the possibility of secure transactions over the Internet is coming shortly.
The Web permits you to access, read, and fetch documents, as well as ftp files, telnet to remote systems, burrow through gopherspace, read the newsgroups, and do all of the other tasks I have discussed above . Using the links, you can move between documents, and return each linked document.
Not all materials in all documents are linked (hyperlinked). Once you connect to a hyperlinked document you will be able to tell which specific words or phrases are linked because they will be bold, in color, underlined, underlined and in color, or otherwise visually separated from the rest of the text. When using graphic browsers you will find that the graphics, whether pictures, drawings (such as buttons) or video, can also be linked to other documents.
Once you have compiled the necessary hardware and software, the next challenge is efficiently locating useful environmental resources. Although space here does not permit me to discuss the hundreds of resources available today (not to mention new ones that appear daily), a few key resource should be used by every environmental professional. These include a discussion group devoted to environmental engineering issues, remote access to EPA, and access to the Federal Register.
Discussion groups provide a wide distribution of email based correspondence. They are available on thousands of topics, and range from dull to vulgar to informative. The basic concept is to permit you to send an email message that is then distributed to a limited list of recipients. Some groups are moderated, some are unmoderated, and some are electronic journals (we will discuss these in a later lesson). My experience has been that the quality of a discussion group is not determined by whether it is moderated and unmoderated, but by the caliber of the participants and the participation of the administrator. Access to newsgroups is typically provided through a host computer that has agreed to handle the feeds, and requires a newsreader application.
There is a wide variety of discussion groups for the environmental professional. They range from the general ("biosph-l" on ecology), to the specific ("ecotheol" on environmental issues from a theological or ethical perspective), to the useful ("envjobs-l" on environmental job postings). Some, especially the general lists, have a very large number of postings, usually on a wide range of popular, but non-technical, topics.
Some of the discussions try to cover every conceivable environmental topic.
In these groups, finding useful postings becomes a chore, and most of the material is personal opinion, or requests for support in stopping a specific development or project. Useful for the public, but not very helpful for the practicing professional.
For the environmental scientist or engineer my recommendation is a list titled "enveng-l". This offers a wide range of technical and regulatory discussions, and is a good source of Internet resources for the environmental professional. More importantly, the traffic is moderate, so following a particular discussion (and there are generally several being conducted at the same time) is easier. You can obtain a subscription by sending email to listproc@pan.cedar.univie.ac.at with the message "subscribe enveng-l <first name> <last name>" (Substitute your name for the entries"<first name> <last name>"). This is an automated subscription, so don't include any other information in your subscription request.
Environmental discussions are also carried in a forum called "newsgroups". Contrary to what the title implies, most newsgroups do not include newswire stories, but rather are a more efficient method of distributing discussion group style postings. Instead of sending your message to a single location, which then blasts it out to all the subscribers mail boxes whether they read it or not (as a discussion group does), newsgroups keep the posting in a central location (actually in a set of mirror locations) for viewing at your leisure. Many of the newsgroups have the same tone and content as the discussion groups. In fact, some discussion groups have mirror newsgroups. At last count there were over 6,000 newsgroups to choose from (although at the rate they grow, this is probably an underestimate now), and the daily input into one type of newsgroups (USENET) is equivalent to volumes A-G of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
I have found that the best newsgroup for environmental information is "clari.tw.environment". It does not contain the type of professional dialog that the discussion group enveng-l provides, but it provides an excellent supplement to that discussion group. My second choice would be "sci.environment". Although the discussion on "sci.environment" is often interesting (an especially good source for new environmental resources on the Internet), the volume of material makes it difficult to find the useful stuff. In addition, it tends toward a popular discussion of popular issues.
There are many options for accessing EPA information and databases on the Internet, but one of the most useful is conveniently called Access EPA. Access EPA is a directory of contact information and a description of EPA services. It includes information on documents, dockets, clearinghouses and hotlines, records, databases, and models. In addition, you can access the card catalog of the EPA libraries, and various State libraries. You can connect to Access EPA by using telnet to the address "epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov". After you connect, select "Public Access" then "OLS" then "Access EPA" from the menu options.
One of our greatest challenges is keeping up with the constant flow of information in the daily Federal Register. Using the Internet, there are at least three ways to make this task simpler.
First, the entire text of the EPA portion of the Federal Register (excluding graphics) can be delivered daily to your email box on the day it is published. These postings are organized by topic and provide only those items in the Federal Register that relate to the selected topics listed below. Be warned that the active lists, such as 'waste', can provide a tremendous amount of material on a daily basis. You can subscribe to these various services by sending the message "subscribe <list name> <first name> <last name>" to listserve@unixmail.rtpnc.epa.gov. (Substitute your name for the entries"<first name> <last name>" and the List Name below for "<list name>". This is an automated subscription, so don't include any other information in your subscription request.)
| Topic | List Name |
|---|---|
| Scientific Advisory Board | epa-sab |
| Documents For Species | epa-species |
| General Materials | epa-general |
| Impact Assessments | epa-impact |
| Air | epa-air |
| Pesticide | epa-pest |
| Toxic Materials | epa-tox |
| Toxic Release Inventory | epa-tri |
| Waste | epa-waste |
| Water | epa-water |
| Meetings | epa-meetings |
Secondly, If you need to scan the Federal Register on a regular basis, but you only occasionally need full text articles, you will find the following mailing list a basic necessity. It will deliver the entire table of contents of the Federal Register on the same day as it is published. This will provide a reference for the materials you want to read (next week we will look at how to get the Federal Register articles you need), without crowding your email box with all the other materials you don't need right now. You can then retrieve the full text of the Federal Register citation using one of the archives discussed below. You can subscribe to this service by sending the message "subscribe epafr-contents <first name> <last name>" to listserve@unixmail.rtpnc.epa.gov. (Substitute your name for the entries"<first name> <last name>". This is an automated subscription, so don't include any other information in your subscription request.)
The final method for obtaining the Federal Register is to search an archive for the full text and then retrieve that file. There are commercial services that provide access to full text archives for a fee (Counterpoint Publishing being perhaps the most visible on the Internet, and Dialog having perhaps the best selection and search capabilities). These services tend to be well organized and timely, and have extensive historical information. In addition, they provide not only the text, but also all tables and graphics.
However, recent issues are available for free on the Internet. These free archives vary as to the issues included and the frequency of updates, are limited to the text portion of the publication, and generally do not permit text based searching. However, if you know the date of publication and page numbers, the free services can provide the material.
Web addresses for some suggested starting sites are provided below. Some of these sites are experimental, and some intend to become for-fee services in the future, so you will have to experiment to see which location is both available and provides the citation you are seeking. The EPA site (first listed) is attempting to become the archive for Federal Register information concerning the environment. It is organized by topic first an the date, and is generally up to date.
http://www.epa.gov/Rules.html
http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/fedreg.html http://ww.istech.com/tore-fr.html
Your bookstore undoubtedly has a number of excellent texts about the Internet, but none deal extensively with the information needs of the environmental professional. If you are looking for a good overview of Internet features and capabilities, I would suggest "The Whole Internet" by Ed Krol. This text can be ordered on-line at http://www.eng.wayne.edu/~HWM/hwm670w97.html.
If you are looking specifically for leaning about finding and using environmental resources, I would suggest the course Introduction to Environmental Information Management (http://www.eng.wayne.edu/~HWM/Course.html) offered by Wayne State University (313-577-3800). This course is taught entirely on-line at your home or office.
In either case, the next step is to get a account on the Internet and try some of the environmental resources listing in this article. Daily copies of the Federal Register, and access to the EPA Library may be enough to justify the $10 to $30 monthly cost of an Internet connection.
For the new user, the best starting place may be one of the subscription services (Compuserve, America On Line or Prodigy, to name just three of the many available). They will provide easy to install, easy to use communications programs, and have technical support and on-line help features. For the more adventurous, and for those that what to expand beyond the subscription services, you should obtain an account for a dial-in direct connection with one of the local or regional providers. This will enable you take full advantage of the Internet on an as-needed basis.
The following Internet addresses are a sample of the hundreds of resources available for the environmental professional. If you are looking for a place to start, try connecting directly to the ASTI listing of environmental resources at http://www.eng.wayne.edu/~HWM/Env.html. It is intended to be a short list of the basic resources that environmental professionals need most frequently.
Finding resources on the Internet has been described as trying to find a person's place of employment without knowing the company or street address.
Accessing resources on the Internet requires that you know the exact address for that resource. Unfortunately different applications have slightly different addressing requirements. The three basic types of addresses are email, telnet or ftp, and the Web. A short explanation of what each addresses looks like is provided below, but first an overview of naming on the Internet.
Each host on the Internet has a unique address (called an IP address) consisting of four sets of numbers (for example 192.187.36.5). The vast majority of the permanent hosts have a corresponding domain name consisting of hierarchical designations. The name gets more specific from right to left, with the top domain on the right , followed by the subdomain names, and finally the individual machine name on the left. A typical domain name would be "borg.eng.wayne.edu". Generally you will not see more than five domains in a domain name.
Domain names have been created for the convenience of Internet users. The major top domain names for the United States are as follows.
Other countries use a two letter top domain designation to indicate the country of origin. The US also has it's own country top domain designation (.us) but it is rarely used. Examples of country top domain designations include...
Not all machines on the Internet have domain names, and not all machines with domain names are on the Internet. The only requirement for obtaining a domain name is that you have an Internet host willing to forward mail. Some computers are capable of receiving mail, but since they do not run TCP/IP are not on the Internet. From a practical point of view, if your attempt to make a connection using the domain name has failed, you should try the IP address. If connection still fails, it may be that the machine is not on the Internet.
Once a domain name has been assigned, the actual location of the machine with that domain name can change. Consequently, computers with similar names may be on different networks. The only thing that the similarity of names tells you is that the two addresses are managed by the same group. In addition, machines may have multiple domain names. This generally happens when services are moved from one machine to another and the owner of the services wants to maintain the original domain name. Finally, since domain names can move with the service, but IP addresses are specific to machines, it is better to remember and use the domain name.
The standard Internet email address consists of the user name, the "@" symbol, and the domain name of the system that handles their email. A typical email address will look like
This domain name addressing will not specify the route that the mail will be delivered, but will, instead, indicate ever more specific groupings of machines until the mail arrives at the desired location. Under the domain name addressing of email, some non-Internet networks have been given domain names under the .org top domain designation described above. Other symbols may also appear in the email address. These include ! and %. These are used to specify specific routing on specific networks, and can result in some non-standard looking email addresses.
Telnet and ftp addresses specify a particular computer within a domain. They look similar to the email address in that they have a domain name, but do not contain an account name for an individual person or the "@" symbol. Examples of telnet or ftp addresses include:
Addresses for the Web have a number of different formats. However, the key to the Web is the ability to give every document, file, or other resource a unique address, so that addresses contain more information than a telnet or ftp address. These addresses are called URLs (pronounced "earls") for Universal Resource Locators, and take the general form:
For example, the following are all valid addresses.
Looking at the first part of the URLs above, the later three refer to specific methods of access (see the accompanying article), while the "http" in the first entry refers to a text and/or a multi-media document that you will access directly on screen, and which contains links to other documents.
Looking at the second part of the URLs above, the part after the "://", you see a lot of variability in the amount of information included. This has to do with both the computer being accessed and the location of the document in the directory structure of the system you are accessing. Your Web software (browser) will interpret this information for you, and in general, you won't even see the URL while you are using the Web.
Since the Web uses the other methods of access we have already discussed, it is theoretically possible to create a URL for any resource and access it with your Web browser. This can be a little tricky, since you sometimes must specify a port number, you may need a slightly different pathname, or you may need access approval, but with a little imagination you should be able to create a URL for any telnet or ftp resource (gopher may be a little more challenging). For example, if you wanted to obtain back issues of The Scientist E-Journal located at ds.internic.net in the subdirectory /pub/the-scientist, the URL would look like this....