LIS 341. Summer, 1996. Lab 2, Finding Someone!

the university of texas at austin
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE

Finding Someone!

See Krol, Chapter 10, 209-231
See also: http://www.utexas.edu/search/email.html, UT Austin's "Searching for People"

Before starting on this part, login to your unix account.

who

If you've forgotten who you are, type whoami. (You may not forget, usually - but sometimes, if you're logged into multiple accounts or computers, you may get a bit confused :-)
who: shows users currently logged in. From the unix prompt, simply type who and press return.

finger
If you know a person's email address, you can find out his or her basic information. Try it on yourself, and then on one of the users you saw when you used who:
```
	finger userid
```

You can also find out who is using a remote system. Try, for example:

	finger @toyota
	finger @lexus
	finger @lanic.utexas.edu   
	finger @ora.com	  (O'Reilly & Associates server)			
	finger @ns.gt   (a nameserver in Guatemala)

To find out additional information on users on remote systems, do a finger specifying their whole address. So, for example, if there was a user maysmith using ora.com, you would know that her address is maysmith@ora.com. Pick one of the users, and try a finger, like this:
```
	finger maysmith@ora.com
```
If you don't know the person's email, you can finger for his or her names. For example, you know that Arturo Rivera is a computer science student at Carnegie Mellon. You guess that his machine will be "cs.cmu.edu" - and you try:
```
	finger rivera@cs.cmu.edu
```
Often you can guess the person's host in a similar way. If you can't, try one of the lists of hostnames on the web, for example, The Universiy Pages, search the InterNIC whois database via telnet (see below) or via their gopher or website (see this class page), or use Netfind (next exercise.)
NEW: Try this! Using PICO, create a .plan file in your home directory. The information you include in this file will be displayed in addition to the default finger information.
Netfind
Please do this one after our lab session! Telnet to bruno.cs.colorado.edu. Login as netfind. Follow the instructions, and locate yourself in the database. Feed it two hints: your last name and "utexas". Remember that netfind works with finger information, and that it is considered an "intrusive" way to find people (make sure you understand why this is so!)

Directories

whois

whois databases lists addresses for individuals and systems. The largest whois database is at the InterNIC Registration Services Host. Telnet to InterNiC:
```
	telnet rs.internic.net
```
Then, try to find John Quarterman's email address by entering:
```
	whois quarterman
```
What happens if you entered his first name too?
```
	whois quarterman, john
```
You can also check out information about domains here, for example:
```
	whois utexas-dom
	whois tw-dom  (information about the Taiwan domain)
```
To list all hosts in a given state, type in:
```
	ho texas
```
Note that InterNIC lists many people who are involved with Internet business and research. But many universities and other organizations also have their own whois databases. A list of whois servers is here: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/whois/whois-servers.list. This file also contains instructions on accessing other whois servers.

X.500
Try the following finger command:
```
	finger lastname@mail.utexas.edu
```
You will receive a message about UT's X.500 directory system, including the correct syntax to use for searching. Try finding yourself on the X.500 directory by typing in the correct query.

Web Directories

Austin Yellow Pages

Go to the Austin Yellow Pages. Find out what kind of information this service can provide you, and do a few test searches.

KIS: Knowbot Information Service
This program was created by CNRI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives. Basically, you enter the parameters for your search, and KIS searches several directories for you. You can reach KIS via telnet:
```
	telnet info.cnri.reston.va.us
```
The interface is very easy to use.
Or, you can access KIS through the web, here:
```
	http://info.cnri.reston.va.us/kis.html
```
It's use is self explanatory. But please be sure to read the KIS' FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), so that you are aware of which databases are being searched.

Four-11
One of the best resources available today on the Web: the Four11 Directory. Try finding yourself, then search for a friend or two. Finally, please look at the FAQ pages, and try to get a feeling for the number of listings this directory contains, and where they come from.

Postmaster

If you still can't find an email address for a friend, but you know which system they are using, try sending a short message to the postmaster:
```
	postmaster@system
```
He or she will probably try to reply within a few days. Please be patient, and use this only as a last resort!

Week 2 page