Chapter 5: Mailing lists and Bitnet (2 of 2) -- BITNET

Chapter 5: Mailing lists and Bitnet (2 of 2) -- BITNET


     Bitnet is an international network linking colleges and
universities, but it uses a different set of technical protocols for
distributing information than the Internet or  Usenet .
     It offers hundreds of discussion groups, comparable in scope to
Usenet  newsgroups .
     One of the major differences is the way messages are
distributed.  Bitnet messages are sent to your mailbox, just as with a
mailing list. However, where mailing lists are often maintained by a
person, all Bitnet discussion groups are automated -- you subscribe to
them through messages to a "listserver" computer.  This is a kind of
robot moderator that controls distribution of messages on the list.  In
many cases, it also maintains indexes and archives of past postings in a
given discussion group, which can be handy if you want to get up to
speed with a discussion or just search for some information related to
it.
     Many Bitnet discussion groups are now "translated" into Usenet
form and carried through Usenet in the bit.listserv hierarchy.  In
general, it's probably better to read messages through Usenet if you
can.  It saves some storage space on your host system's hard drives.
     If 50 people subscribe to the same Bitnet list, that means 50
copies of each message get stored on the system; whereas if 50 people
read a Usenet message, that's still only one message that needs storage
on the system.  It can also save your sanity if the discussion group
generates large numbers of messages.  Think of opening your e-mailbox
one day to find 200 messages in it -- 199 of them from a discussion
group and one of them a "real" e-mail message that's important to you.
     Subscribing and canceling subscriptions is done through an e- mail
message to the listserver computer.  For addressing, all listservers are
known as "listserv" (yep) at some Bitnet address. This means you will
have to add ".bitnet" to the end of the address, if it's in a form like
this: listserv@miamiu. For example, if you have an interest in
environmental issues, you might want to subscribe to the Econet
discussion group.  To subscribe, send an e-mail message to

                listserv@miamiu.bitnet

Some Bitnet listservers are also connected to the Internet, so if you see
a listserver address ending in ".edu", you can e-mail the listserver
without adding ".bitnet" to the end.
     Always leave the "subject:" line blank in a message to a listserver.
Inside the message, you tell the listserver what you want, with a series
of simple commands:

subscribe group Your Name    To subscribe to a list, where "group"
                             is the list name and "Your Name" is
                             your full name, for example:
                             subscribe econet Henry Fielding

unsubscribe group Your Name  To discontinue a group, for example:
                             unsubscribe econet Henry Fielding

list global                  This sends you a list of all available
                             Bitnet discussion groups.  But be careful
                             -- the list is VERY long!

get refcard                  Sends you a list of other commands you
                             can use with a listserver, such as
                             commands for retrieving past postings
                             from a discussion group.

     Each of these commands goes on a separate line in your message (and
you can use one or all of them).  If you want to get a list of all Bitnet
discussion groups, send e-mail to

                listserv@bitnic.educom.edu

Leave the "subject:" line blank and use the list global command.
     When you subscribe to a Bitnet group, there are two important
differences from Usenet.
     First, when you want to post a message for others to read in the
discussion group, you send a message to the group name at its Bitnet
address.  Using Econet as an example, you would mail the message to:

                econet@miamiu.bitnet

     Note that this is different from the listserv address you used to
subscribe to the group to begin with.  Use the listserv address ONLY to
subscribe to or unsubscribe from a discussion group.  If you use the
discussion-group address, your message will go out to every other
subscriber, many of whom will think unkind thoughts, which they may share
with you in an e-mail message).
      The second difference relates to sending an e-mail message to the
author of a particular posting.  Usenet newsreaders such as rn and nn let
you do this with one key.  But if you hit your R key to respond to a
discussion-group message, your message will go to the listserver, and
from there to everybody else on the list!  This can prove embarrassing to
you and annoying to others. To make sure your message goes just to the
person who wrote the posting, take down his e-mail address from the
posting and then compose a brand-new message to him.  Remember, also,
that if you see an e-mail address like IZZY@INDYVMS, it's a Bitnet
address.
        Two Bitnet lists will prove helpful for delving further into the
network.  NEW-LIST tells you the names of new discussion groups. To
subscribe, send a message to listserv@ndsuvm1.bitnet:

                sub NEW-LIST Your Name

     INFONETS is the place to go when you have questions about Bitnet. It
is also  first rate for help on questions about all major computer
networks and how to reach them.  To subscribe, send e-mail to info-nets-
request@think.com:

                sub INFONETS Your Name

     Both of these lists are also available on Usenet, the former as
bit.listserv.new-list; the latter as bit.listserv.infonets (sometimes
bit.listserv.info-nets).