Monthly Posting: Informix Internet Resources

Informix-Related Internet Resources Last Changed: September 27, 1996 This is a listing of some of the more popular Informix-related sites and resources on the Internet. Many of these are maintained by the International Informix Users Group (IIUG). The listing portion of this document is available as a Web page and may be found at "http://www.iiug.org/popular.html";. Sites and Resources: www.iiug.org IIUG Web site /iiug/membership_app.html On-Line IIUG membership application /local/grps_world.html Worldwide listing of Informix user groups /other_sites.html List of other Informix-related sites /rumors/ Informix Rumors page /software/ IIUG software repository /techinfo/faq/ The Informix FAQ Listing /usenet/cdi_archive.html comp.databases.informix/informix-list archive ftp.iiug.org IIUG FTP Archive site ftp.mathcs.emory.edu Mirror site /pub/informix/ Top directory for IIUG anonymous FTP archive /pub/informix/README File explaining archive organization /pub/informix/ls-lR Modified "ls -lR" output for entire archive /pub/informix/faq/ The Informix FAQ Listing (see also ftp://kcbbs.gen.nz/pub/informix/) www.informix.com Informix corporate Web site /catalog Informix Solutions Guide /informix/corpinfo/ Worldwide listing of Informix user groups usrgrups/usrgrups.htm /informix/dbweb/dbweb.htm Web/database information and free software /informix/services/ InformixLink Techinfo Center (login with ilink/ilink.htm password required) www.illustra.com Illustra Web Site The above listings are but a brief summary of what is available. To learn more, visit each of the sites mentioned and do a little investigating. The remainder of this message contains information primarily for people just learning about IIUG or the Internet. INTERNATIONAL INFORMIX USERS GROUP - IIUG The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) maintains publicly available archives of user-contributed documentation, shareware files, and articles from the Usenet newsgroup comp.databases.informix and its companion e-mail mailing list, Informix-List. You can access the archives either via a Web browser or anonymous FTP. The Web archives are maintained at the IIUG Web site, which may be reached by linking to the URL "http://www.iiug.org";. All archive files and c.d.i articles are kept there in plain text, so you can search, view or download any of them. If you have problems reaching the IIUG Web site, contact "webmaster@www.iiug.org" via e-mail. There are two systems that maintain versions of the archives that are accessible via Anonymous FTP. "FTP" stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is designed primarily for moving files between systems. The "Anonymous" part refers to a convention that allows anyone to log into a special area of a system that the administrator has made publicly available. When you ftp to a system, it will ask you for your login-ID. To access the public area, enter an ID of "anonymous". When asked for a password, enter your full e-mail address. This is also convention, though some sites now force the entry of a string that looks like an e-mail address. The primary IIUG ftp site is ftp.iiug.org (IP 204.167.252.80). It is mirrored at ftp.mathcs.emory.edu (IP 199.76.28.1). The Informix archives on these two system are synchronized each night. All archive files on the IIUG Web site are also in the FTP archives, though many of the FTP files are compressed. There are a number of other Informix-related archive sites around the Net that are dedicated to specific software, local user group archives, or other special purposes. You may obtain a listing of these by linking to the URL "http://www.iiug.org/other_sites.html"; on the Web or downloading the file "ftp://ftp.iiug.org/pub/informix/doc/archive_sites" via FTP. If you only have e-mail access to the Net, you can still retrieve FTP files via e-mail using a service called "ftpmail". Listed below are both an example of an interactive anonymous ftp session, and a sample message that would be sent to an ftpmail server site. If you have problems accessing either of the sites mentioned here, please send e-mail to "ftp@ftp.iiug.org". USING ANONYMOUS FTP If you've never used anonymous FTP, here is a quick primer, in the form of a sample session on ftp.iiug.org with comments in {}. Lines where you type something are marked with "<<<": $ ftp ftp.iiug.org {or: ftp 204.167.252.80} <<< Connected to ftp.iiug.org 220 iiug FTP server ((UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0) ready. Name (ftp.iiug.org:walt): anonymous <<< 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. Password: walt@rmy.emory.edu {use your e-mail address here} <<< 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> cd pub/informix <<< 250 CWD command successful. ftp> get README <<< 200 PORT command successful. 226 ASCII Transfer complete. ftp> get ls-lR <<< 200 PORT command successful. 226 ASCII Transfer complete. . . {repeat this step for each file you want} . ftp> quit <<< 221 Goodbye. % USING AN FTP MAIL SERVER TO DO ANONYMOUS FTP VIA E-MAIL There are sites connected to the Internet that provide mail servers for use by anyone who doesn't have access to FTP. Such a server acts as an intermediary that takes your request by e-mail, gets the files you want from the FTP site you specify, then e-mails those files back to you. One of the best known sites is located at the DEC Western Research Lab in Palo Alto, CA, USA. You communicate with the retrieval utility by sending e-mail to the address "ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com". To obtain a help message, send an e-mail message to that address consisting of the word "help". The instructions for that server will be returned to you in an e-mail message. As an example, to get the files "README" and "ls-lR" from /pub/informix on ftp.iiug.org, send a message to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com like the following: reply <your domain-style e-mail address or bang-path from decwrl goes here> connect ftp.iiug.org chdir /pub/informix get README get ls-lR quit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Walt Hultgren Internet: walt@rmy.emory.edu (IP 170.140.97.4) Emory University UUCP: {...,gatech,rutgers,uunet}!emory!rmy!walt 954 Gatewood Road, NE