107 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
THE ANARCHIST'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET (part 1)
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by cardell
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The Internet is a collection of computer networks that interacts as a
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whole on a direct basis, i.e. the computers are directly linked to
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each other all the time. On the net there is lots and lots of
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information to collect, and lots and lots of people to meet. The
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following is the first part of a guide for the anarchist to this
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collection of networks. In it you will find information on how to get
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access to the net, what you can do when you're on and where to find
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the information you want.
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This guide also includes information concerning Fidonet, a hobbyist
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computer network for electronic mail, and how you can reach Internet
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from Fidonet.
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Introduction
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============
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If you're reading this on the net you might as well skip the entire
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article. In coming parts there might be some useful information for
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you, but this is for the netless persons out there.
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There's lots and lots of information on the net that can be useful
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to us in different situations. If we want legal advice in a sensetive
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matter, there's the online library catalogs to give us the help we
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need by recommending books and written material. If we need more
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practical advice to make certain things go *BOOM* we can easily find
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that too.
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Perhaps you just need to get in touch with the right people. Well,
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that can be arranged over this marvellous net as well. There's
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chatting capabilities, either individual person-to-person (talk), or
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group chats (IRC). There's also public forums called newsgroups that
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discusses various topics, e.g. drugs, anarchy, activism etc. You can
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also find information, or at least references, through huge public
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databases. There's even more -- stay tuned.
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If you find errors or incomplete information please send me
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corrections or more information so I can update this file for future
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re-publication. Write to:
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Internet: cardell@lysator.liu.se
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Fidonet: Mikael Cardell, 2:205/223
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Snailnet: Mikael Cardell
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Gustav Adolfsgatan 3
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S-582 20 LINKOPING
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Sweden
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Voicenet: + 46 13 12 31 01
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Access to the net
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=================
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Get a computer or a terminal. Got that? Great, now get a modem
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(modulator/demodulator), a neat little thing that translates the bits
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of information from the computer into tones that can be sent over
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telephone lines. Connect it to the computer, fire up your
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communications program, and you're on. Well, not quite, you must have
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somewhere to call too.
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The most important thing, of course, is to have access to the
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Internet. There are several ways to go:
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* Call a Bulletin Board System (BBS) near you that has a connection
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to Fidonet (a hobbyist computer network). These BBSes are usually
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free of charge or very cheap to use. Ask around among friends with
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computers to get the numbers.
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* If you're on a university or a college, be sure to get access to
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the computers. You'll need an account, ask the people in charge of
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the computers.
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* Join a computer club that has access to Internet or to Fidonet.
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Again, ask around among friends with computers for more information.
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You might also contact some big corporation that want your monetarian
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units, but that's a different matter completely, so I won't even go
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into examples. Furthermore these corporations usually just offer you
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their proprieraty electronic mail service that leaves you out in the
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cold since you cant get out from their system.
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If you're allready on Fidonet you can reach the Internet through
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gateways like Chalmers Datorforening (2:203/125) here in Sweden.
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Write to UUCP at the node specified above and put the Internet
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address, usually in the form user@site.country (as in my address
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cardell@lysator.liu.se), on the first row in your message. Take a
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look in the nodelist for gateways closer to you.
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On the other hand, if you haven't heard of either Fidonet nor
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Internet and your wondering what I'm babbling about you can ask
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around among friends and I'm sure you will get the information you
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need to get on. Ask for bulletin board systems and if they have
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access to Fidonet.
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In Sweden at least there's lots of computer clubs with different
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degrees of access to the Internet. The academic computer clubs at the
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universities, e.g. Lysator at Linkoping university, Stacken at the
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Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm and Solace at the University
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of Harnosand/Sundsvall, usually has full access, but you need to be a
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student at the university to become a member. But then again, there's
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a lot of other clubs, e.g. ABC, proxxi and AUGS in Stockholm, that
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would be glad to have you as a member for a small fee. I'm sure
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Sweden isn't the only country to have a lot of computer clubs like
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these.
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Come on -- get online!
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