ARCHIE BY EMAIL
               ---------------
Let's say you know the name of a file, but you have no idea at which FTP
site it might be lurking. Or maybe you're curious to know if files
matching a certain naming criteria are available via FTP. Archie is the
tool you can use to find out.
Archie servers can be thought of as a database of all the anonymous FTP
sites in the world, allowing you to find the site and/or name of a file
to be retrieved. And using Archie by e-mail can be convenient because
some Archie searches take a LONG time to complete, leaving you to tap
your toes in the meantime.
To use Archie by e-mail, simply send an e-mail message to this address:
  archie@archie.icm.edu.pl      (Poland)
To obtain detailed help for using Archie by mail, put the word
  help
in the subject of the note and just send it off. You'll receive e-mail
explaining how to use archie services. If you're the "just do it" type,
then enter the command:
  find <file>
where "<file>" is the name of the file to search for, in the BODY (not
the subject) of the note. This will search for files that match your
criteria exactly. If you want to find files that contain your search
criteria anywhere in their name, insert the line
  set search sub
before the "find" command. Some other useful archie commands you might
want to use are:
  set maxhits 20       (limit output, default is 100 files)
  set match_domain usa    (restrict output to FTP sites in USA)
  set output_format terse  (return output in condensed form)
When you get the results from your Archie query, it will contain the
names of various sites at which the desired file is located. Use one of
these site names and the directory/filename listed for your next FTP
file retrieval request.
Now you've learned enough to locate that UUDECODE utility mentioned in
the last section. Let's send e-mail to archie@archie.icm.edu.pl and
include the following lines in the message:
  set search sub       (looking for a substring match...)
  find uudecode       (must contain this string...)
Note: You'll be looking for the uudecode source code, not the executable
version, which would of course be a binary file and would arrive
uuencoded - a Catch 22! The output of your archie query will contain
lots of information like this:
Host sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch  (195.176.255.9)
Last updated 14:30 14 Dec 1999
   Location: /mirror/NetBSD/NetBSD-release/src/usr.bin/uudecode
    FILE  -rw-rw-r--     5832 02:00 23 Mar 1999 uudecode.c
Host helka.iif.hu    (193.225.12.48)
Last updated 14:30 16 Dec 1999
   Location: /pub/mirror_hosts/ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/00_start
    FILE  -rw-r--r--     5567 02:00 23 Feb 1999 uudecode.bas
    FILE  -rw-r--r--     5349 02:00 23 Feb 1999 uudecode.c
Now you can use an ftpmail server to request "uudecode.bas" (if you have
BASIC available) or "uudecode.c" (if you have a C compiler) from the
helka.iif.hu site.
SPECIAL NOTE: For DOS users, there is an EXECUTABLE ASCII version of
the UUDECODE.COM program available. This is a rare exception to the
rule that executable files must be encoded to survive e-mail
transmission. You can receive it via e-mail and execute it "as is". To
get a copy, send e-mail
  To: gboyd@expita.com
  Subject: send uudecode.com (must be lowercase).
For further info on using uudecode, send e-mail
  To: gboyd@expita.com
  Subject: send uudecode.how (must be lowercase).
          FTP SEARCH BY EMAIL
              -------------------
Archie servers could be thought of as a database of all the anonymous
FTP sites in the world, allowing you to find the site and/or name of a
file to be retrieved. This function has been taken over by a web-based
FTP search engine.
To use FTP Search by e-mail, simply send an e-mail message to one of the
webmail servers (see WWW section) with this line in the message
BODY:
  send http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=lycosnet\
   &query=[file name or keyword]&filetype=All+files
Now you've learned enough to locate that UUDECODE utility mentioned in
the last section. Replace [file name or keyword] with uudecode.bas to
find Basic source code, so our e-mail request looks like this:
  send http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=lycosnet   &query=uudecode.bas&filetype=All+files
Note: You'll be looking for the uudecode Basic source code, not the
executable version, which would of course be a binary file and would
arrive uuencoded - a Catch 22! The output of your ftp query will
contain lots of information like this:
  2 /.2/simtelnet/msdos/00_start/uudecode.bas
   5.4K - 1996 Feb 24 00:00
   FTP Site: ftp.cdrom.com
  3 /.3/msdos/00_start/uudecode.bas
   5.4K - 1996 Feb 24 00:00
   FTP Site: ftp.eunet.cz
  4 /.4/cpm/starter-kit/uudecode.bas
   1.9K - 1986 Oct 11 00:32
   FTP Site: ftp.southcom.com.au
Now you can use an ftpmail server to request "uudecode.bas" (if you have
BASIC available) from the ftp.cdrom.com site or one of the others.