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>Erica Stearns Wrote:
>I spoke with an avid Internet user, and he recommended the following
>search browsers for finding Web sites.

These are search indexes.

>I asked why someone might use different browsers, and in the true
>nature of immediate gratification, you can call another site if the one
>you are using is busy.

I run a UNIX system, so I can run several instances of the same browser.  
Some browsers are unable to run more than one instance.  By having 
multiple browser products, you can switch between browsers.  Typically, 
you can read and page through one display while loading a document in the 
other display.

There are several different browsers.  These are the readers which allow 
you to access Web Servers.  There are several, including:

	Linx - a text-only based browser, useful for customers who want to 
		dial into a VT100 interface.
	Mosaic version 1.X - The original Graphical Web interface.  It was
		very pretty, but very slow.
	Mosaic version 2.X - Faster, also offers security and formatting 
		features.  This is available in source and binary form for
		several different platforms.  This has led to support by 
		several hundred MIS professionals.
	Cello - A low-cost Graphical interface developed by Cornel to search
		the Web law libraries.
	WinWeb - A commercial graphical browser for the WEB, supports 
		Windows users only.
	Netscape - The developers of Mosaic created a faster commercial 
		version which is now called Netscape.  Netscape supports several
		proprietary including "Secure Sockets" (their patented interface),
		RSA encryption, and PDF documents.  It is not supported by third
		party developers.
See http://www.w3.org/ for more information on the spectrum of products 
available.

>Something for us to keep in mind on the
>technical side. If our site is full, we could lose potential clients.
>T1 server, anyone?

	Yes, we will want to have support for at least T1.  We currently 
have 56 Kb to McGrawNet, they are already planning an Upgrade.  If we 
need it, there is a DS-3 Internet link running about 1 mile from the 
Heightstown link.  A Pentium/90 running Linux or BSDI Unix will support 
100 users.  A Sparc/20 will support 120-150 users.

Many popular services can handle as many as 1000 simultaneous users by 
creating Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Servers (RAIS).  Another 
approach is to use Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) and 
couple them to Symmetric Multiple Processor (SMP) versions of UNIX or 
OSF/1.  Colorado is already using this technology in their Pyramid system.

To the extent that we are able to keep up with the demand, the load 
should grow exponentially from about 100 users to capacity, at a rate of 
about 10-25%/month (double every 4-6 months).  The RAIS approach seems to 
be the cost/effective.

The big concern here is the licensing.  Each server requires an unlimited 
user license.  The most significant limitations are disk drive 
availability and network bandwidth (not CPU cycles).

Here are some references.

  Equipment 
This is a series of answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

>http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html        EINet Galaxy
This is the Default home page for the WinWeb Browser.  Several browsers 
point you to default home-pages.  This home-page can be changed to one 
that meets your personal preferences.

>http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu                 Lycos - You have to be very
>                                        specific in the search criteria
The nice thing about Lycos is that you can search 4.5 million pages
(growing at 5%/week) in a matter of a few seconds.

I have been getting good results with the Forms version.
The NT version is fast when it's lightly loaded, but it isn't always 
available.  Lycos also available for commercial license.  One company,
NlightN is planning to make it possible to search 12,000 libaries.
See http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/lycos-press-02.html for more information.

>http://webcrawler.cs.washington.edu/WebCrawler/WebQuery.html    Whew!
>This is called the WebCrawler.  I call it long.
Web-Crawler is one of many "Front-Ends" for search engines such as WAIS.
You can register a URL which will be searched and indexed.


>//http://www.cs.colorado.edu/mcbryan/WWWW.html     World Wide Web
>                                                        Worm
This is another "front-end".


>http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/      Yahoo - The 2 students who set
>this up have taken a leave of absence from school to manage the site
>full time.
Actually, Yahoo is now a commercial product.
Now at: http://www.yahoo.com/

There are several "Browse aids".  The search engine lets a user quickly
find interesting information by subject.  An exceptionally useful service 
is the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS).  WAIS engines are capable of 
searching multiple servers at the same time.  Using a single query the 
WAIS server can search multple servers (called sources).  A directory of
servers can be found at
  WAIS Inc - Directory of Servers

Since we already have several databases in SQL (oracle) they can be 
accessed using a front-end as well.
  
GSQL - a Mosaic-SQL gateway 


There are also several "Menu" pages with lists of publications on them.

Here are some other popular home-pages.
  O'Reilly 
Home Page
This page has several good starting page references.  This is one of the 
first commercial internet services.
  CompuServe's Web
  
NCSA Mosaic Home Page


Some of the financial services offered by Standard & Poor's are already 
on the Web
  SEC EDGAR 
Database
They provide EDGAR, with delays, and in basic format.

  Security APL Quote 
Server
This is a stock broker who sends the 15 minute delayed quotes to people
who are, or will be customers.

  DowVision
This is the DowVision wires (PR, Broadtape,...)
Unfortunately, the McGrawNet Fire-Wall does not properly handle 
authentication.

  LEXIS-NEXIS Communication 
Center

  Dialog Home Page


  
Fortune 500

One of the big issues of comercializing the internet is the ability to 
transfer money.  The following companies provide "push-button service".
  FV: Account Application
  DigiCash - 
company brochure

Rather than have 1 million separate accounts, we can have someone else bundle
a "package deal" which supports many customers.  They collect the money and
redistribute to a pool of publishers based on authentication records. We may
want to partner, or have McGraw-Hill go after this market.  We want to get a
good contract while they are still hungry.  This will eventually be the 
biggest piece of the pie.
  Newshare(SM) Welcome Page
  
NEWSHARE CONCEPT EXPLAINED

Here are some other lists of newspapers.
HREF="http://marketplace.com/e-papers.list.www/e-papers.home.page.html"> 
Online newspapers main menu
  NewsLink menu 
(c) 1995
  NewsPage Home Page
  
NewsPage Home Page
  
InterLock Gopher Menu
This is actually a front-end to the gopher system.
This was composed from a "do-it-yourself newspaper" called "Crayon"
  The 
Standard & Poor's Report


Here is some demographic information for the Marketing People.
  NewsLink 
industry reports (c) 1995
  traffic resource 
  
Jupiter Online Newspaper Report
  Allen Marketing Group 
Home Page
  ITC Home Page 
  traffic resource 

Here are some marketing and legal reccomendations from an on-line mailing 
list.
  
Internet Marketing Archives
  
READI: Negotiating Networked Information Contracts and Li
censes

  Welcome to Worlds Inc.
  COTI CTN
  Equipment 


This describes the procedures for turning a low-cost UNIX server into a 
Fire-wall.  Dos/Windows systems must be protected from directly accessing 
the internet since they are not inherantly protected by the operating 
system.  Unix systems may be configured with several levels of security, 
depending upon the content and target group.

  SATAN 
Release Information
  Price 
Information
  SGML-Tools.txt



	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.



From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon May 29 21:27:47 1995