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Web Browsers

This is a historical document and does not reflect current practice. Trans-Video.Net will update this page in the coming months.

BROWSERS ACCESSIBLE BY TELNET

An up-to-date list of these is available on the Web as http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/FAQ/Bootstrap.html and should be regarded as an authoritative list.

  • telnet.w3.org
    • A telnettable browser provided by the W3 coalition.
  • www.cc.ukans.edu
    • Offers Lynx, a full screen browser which requires a vt100 terminal. Log in as www. Does not allow users to "go" to arbitrary URLs, so GET YOUR OWN COPY of Lynx and install it on your system if your administrator has not done so already. Lynx is the best plain-text browser, so move mountains if necessary to get your own copy of Lynx!
  • www.njit.edu
    • (or telnet 128.235.163.2) Log in as www. A full-screen browser in New Jersey Institute of Technology. USA.
  • www.huji.ac.il
    • A dual-language Hebrew/English database, with links to the rest of the world. The line mode browser, plus extra features. Log in as www. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
  • info.funet.fi
    • (or telnet 128.214.6.102). Log in as www. Offers several browsers, including Lynx.
  • fserv.kfki.hu
    • Hungary. Has slow link, use from nearby. Login is as www.

AMIGA BROWSERS

  • IBrowse
    • An AmigaOS browser that supports many Netscape extensions to HTML, as well as forms and progressive image rendering. This browser is a new, commercial browser from the authors of the Amiga Mosaic port (see below). [URL:http://www.omnipresence.com/ibrowse/]
  • AMosaic
    • Browser for AmigaOS, based on NCSA's Mosaic. Supports older Amigas as well as the newer machines in the latest versions. Supports frames as well. See [URL:http://www.omnipresence.com/amosaic/2.0]. See also the FAQ available at [URL:http://www.phone.net/ATCPFAQ/amosaic.html].
  • Amiga Lynx
    • An Amiga version of the Lynx text-based browser. See [URL:http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/alynx.html].
  • Emacs w3-mode
    • A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Gnu Emacs on the Amiga. Has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.

MACINTOSH BROWSERS

NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your network provider or educational institution (see Frank Hecker's guide to SLIP and PPP access; URL is [URL:http://access.digex.net/~hecker/] ; ), or using The Internet Adapter or SLiRP, products which simulate SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account. If you only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.

  • NCSA Mosaic for Macintosh
    • From NCSA. Full featured. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mac/Mosaic.
  • Netscape
    • From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is: [URL:http://www.netscape.com] ). Netscape has consistently released new features first. Version 2.0 supports custom "applets" written in the programming language Java, as well as new HTML features such as frames (displaying more than one document in the same browser window). Netscape also has strong table support, in addition to many extensions to HTML, not all of which conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but can be evaluated free of charge for 90 days by individuals. The 16-bit version works under both OS/2 and Windows. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.netscape.com in the netscape subdirectory. See Netscape's web site for information about mirror sites.
  • MacWeb
    • From EINet. Has features that Mosaic lacks; lacks some features that Mosaic has. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net in the directory einet/mac/macweb.
  • Enhanced Mosaic
    • Enhanced Mosaic, from Spyglass, Incorporated, is the commercial version of NCSA Mosaic. Spyglass does sell the browser directly to the public, although you can download an evaluation version to try it out; instead, they seek to license it to various OEMs. You can learn more about their licensing arrangements and the existing licensees from the Spyglass home page (URL is [URL:http://www.spyglass.com/] ).

MSDOS BROWSERS

NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your network provider or educational institution, or using The Internet Adapter or SLiRP, products which simulate SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account. If you only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.

  • DosLynx
    • DosLynx is an excellent text-based browser for use on DOS systems. You must have a level 1 packet driver, or an emulation thereof, or you will only be able to browse local files; essentially, if your PC has an Ethernet connection, or you have SLIP, you should be able to use it. DosLynx can view GIF images, but not when they are inline images (as of this writing). See the README.HTM file at the DosLynx site for details. You can obtain DosLynx by anonymous FTP from ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory pub/WWW/DosLynx; the URL is ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/.
  • Minuet
    • An all-in-one Internet access package for MSDOS. Includes both text-mode and graphics-mode display. Available by anonymous FTP from minuet.micro.umn.edu in the directory pub/minuet/latest/minuarc.exe.

NEXTSTEP BROWSERS

Note: NeXTStep systems can also run X-based browsers using one of the widely used X server products for the NeXT. The browsers listed here, by contrast, are native NeXTStep applications.

  • SpiderWoman
    • A multithreaded, graphical browser for NeXTStep. Available by anonymous FTP from sente.epfl.ch in the directory pub/software (URL is [URL:http://sente.epfl.ch/] ).
  • Netsurfer
    • Another true NeXTStep browser. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.thoughtport.com in the directory /pub/next/netsurfer (URL is [URL:http://www.netsurfer.com/] ).
  • OmniWeb
    • A World Wide Web browser for NeXTStep. The URL for more information is http://www.omnigroup.com/; you can ftp the package from ftp.omnigroup.com in the /pub/software/ directory.
  • WorldWideWeb, CERN's NeXT Browser-Editor
    • A browser/editor for NeXTStep. _Currently out of date; editor not operational._ Allows wysiwyg hypertext editing. Requires NeXTStep 3.0. Available for anonymous FTP from ftp.w3.org in the directory /pub/www/src.
  • Emacs w3-modeA WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows, NeXTstep, VMS, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix system. Also has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode under DOS and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.

TEXT-MODE UNIX AND VMS BROWSERS

These are text-based browsers for Unix (and in some cases also VMS) systems. In many cases your system administrator will have already installed one or more of these packages; check before compiling your own copy.

  • Line Mode Browser
    • This program gives W3 readership to anyone with a dumb terminal. A general purpose information retrieval tool. Available by anonymous ftp from www.w3.org in the directory /pub/www/src.
  • The "Lynx" full screen browser
    • This is a hypertext browser for vt100s using full screen, arrow keys, highlighting, etc. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp2.cc.ukans.edu.
  • Tom Fine's perlWWW
    • A tty-based browser written in perl. Available by anonymous FTP from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu in the directory pub/w3browser as the file w3browser-0.1.shar.
  • For VMS
    • Dudu Rashty's full screen client based on VMS's SMG screen management routines. Available by anonymous FTP from vms.huji.ac.il in the directory www/www_client.
  • Emacs w3-mode
    • A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows, NeXTstep, VMS, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix system. Also has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode under DOS and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.

VM/CMS BROWSERS

  • Albert
    • A WWW browser for the VM/CMS operating system. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.nerdc.ufl.edu in the directory pub/vm/www/.
  • Charlotte
    • A full-screen VM/CMS browser written in REXX, Pipelines and REXX Sockets which runs without changes on any version of CMS from 5 to 11. (URL is [URL:gopher://p370.bcsc.gov.bc.ca] ).

MICROSOFT WINDOWS BROWSERS

NOTE: Most of these browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP networking on your PC. The exceptions are SlipKnot and I-COMM, which have slightly more limited features but operate without a proper Internet connection. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone lines. You can do this one of two ways: using a proper SLIP account, which requires the active cooperation of your network provider or educational institution (see Frank Hecker's guide to SLIP and PPP access; URL is [URL:http://access.digex.net/~hecker/] ), or by using The Internet Adapter or SLiRP, products which simulate SLIP through your dialup Unix shell account. Another product, TwinSock at [URL:http://ugsparc0.eecg.utoronto.ca/~luk/Welcome.html], provides equivalent functionality under Windows using its own proxy protocol. If you only have non-Unix based dialup shell access, or have no PC at home, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the VMS (or Unix, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do so.

  • Mosaic for Windows
    • From NCSA. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory PC/Windows/Mosaic, or learn more about it on the web: [URL:http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MosaicForWindows/Status.html] The latest versions of WinMosaic support innovative features such as "AutoSurf", which can automatically retrieve documents related to the current document to save download time.
  • Netscape
    • From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is: [URL:http://www.netscape.com] ). Netscape has consistently released new features first. Version 2.0 supports custom "applets" written in the programming language Java, as well as new HTML features such as frames (displaying more than one document in the same browser window). Netscape also has strong table support, in addition to many extensions to HTML, not all of which conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but can be evaluated free of charge for 90 days by individuals. The 16-bit version works under both OS/2 and Windows. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.netscape.com in the netscape subdirectory. See Netscape's web site for information about mirror sites.
  • Quarterdeck Mosaic
    • From Quarterdeck. Supports incremental image loading, forms, new HTML extensions and other modern web browser features. Includes Internet connectivity software and advanced history-keeping features, as well as private annotations of web pages. A 30-day evaluation copy is available on the web [URL:http://www.qdeck.com/qdeck/demosoft/QMosaic/].
  • Compuserve Mosaic
    • From Compuserve (Spry is now part of Compuserve). Works under Windows and OS/2. Supports the mailto: URL, transparent GIFs, ALT tags, hierarchical hotlists, progressive image rendering, and so forth.
  • Internet Explorer
    • [URL:http://www.microsoft.com/], from Microsoft. Supports incremental image loading, forms, HTTP keep-alive, tables (in the latest betas as of this writing), and many Netscape extensions and unique Microsoft extensions to HTML.
  • Internetworks
    • From Internetworks, formerly (?) Booklink. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.booklink.com in the directory lite; this is a demonstration version of the full browser, which costs $99. Booklink can open many simultaneous connections in different windows and display images and pages progressively; at the time of this writing it is the only browser to equal Netscape in this area. The "lite" version can only open two simultaneous connections, however.
  • SlipKnot
    • SlipKnot is a graphical WWW browser that operates entirely without SLIP, PPP, an Ethernet connection, or special server-side software (but read the SLIP emulator section for another workaround). SlipKnot features the ability to automatically retrieve all documents linked to by the current document while the current document is being read. SlipKnot supports multiple fonts, inline images, forms, and review of documents you have already received while new documents arrive. SlipKnot can also download "nearby" documents in advance to save download time. Like I-COMM, SlipKnot operates entirely through a Unix shell account, not over TCP/IP. SlipKnot does _not_ require that you install any new software on your Unix shell account. You can obtain SlipKnot by anonymous FTP from oak.oakland.edu in the directory SimTel/win3/internet. For more information, see the SlipKnot information page (URL is http://www.interport.net/slipknot/slipknot.html ) or send a blank email message to slipknot@micromind.com.
  • I-COMM
    • I-COMM, like SlipKnot, operates without a true TCP/IP connection. It requires a Unix shell account, like SlipKnot, or a VMS shell account, a feature unique to I-COMM. I-COMM also features Zmodem file transfers in both directions and complete support for forms. I-COMM is available for evaluation as shareware (URL is [URL:http://www.best.com/~icomm/icomm.htm]).
  • IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
    • A native IBM OS/2 web browser. WebExplorer is a multithreaded application and, in addition to the usual "back" and "forward" buttons, features a visual map of your exploration of the web. The software supports progressive image rendering. IBM WebExplorer can be acquired by anonymous FTP from ftp01.ny.us.ibm.net in the directory pub/WebExplorer/ .
  • WebSurfer
    • Included with the Chameleon TCP/IP software package from Netmanage, Inc. Reputedly functional and straightforward.
  • Emacs w3-mode
    • A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows, NeXTstep, VMS, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix system. Also has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode under DOS and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3 .
  • Enhanced Mosaic
    • Enhanced Mosaic, from Spyglass, Incorporated, is the commercial version of NCSA Mosaic. Spyglass does not offer the browser directly to the public; instead, they license it to various OEMs. You can learn more about their licensing arrangements and the existing licensees from the Spyglass home page (URL is [URL:http://www.spyglass.com/] ).
  • UdiWWW
    • UdiWWW, unlike all other Windows browsers as of this writing, supports all of the proposed HTML 3.0 standard (except for [OVERLAY] and [MATH]) and also supports Netscape's various nonstandard extensions. UdiWWW is still being tested, but you can obtain it for yourself and see (URL is [URL:http://www.uni-ulm.de/~richter/udiwww/index.htm] ).
  • Emissary
    • Emissary, from Wollongong, is both a web browser and a concerted effort to integrate the Internet into the Windows environment. For instance, FTP sites appear much like drives in the file manager, mail can be sent via drag and drop, and WYSIWYG HTML editing is included. Emissary supports several Netscape extensions, but lacks support for tables.
  • NetShark
    • [URL:http://netshark.inter.net], From InterCon Systems Corporation [URL:http://www.intercon.com]. Supports incremental displaying of pages and inline images. Supports extensions to HTML, including background images. NetShark also includes a MIME compatible mail client. The Lite version is available free of charge by anonymous ftp from netshark.inter.net in the /pub/netshark/ directory.
  • Cello
    • Browser from Cornell LII. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/cello.
  • WinWeb
    • From EINet. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.einet.net in the directory /einet/pc/winweb as the file winweb.zip.

X/DECWINDOWS (GRAPHICAL UNIX, VMS) BROWSERS

  • Netscape
    • From Netscape Communications Corp (URL is: [URL:http://www.netscape.com] ). Netscape has consistently released new features first. Version 2.0 supports custom "applets" written in the programming language Java, as well as new HTML features such as frames (displaying more than one document in the same browser window). Netscape also has strong table support, in addition to many extensions to HTML, not all of which conform to the proposed standard. Netscape is a commercial product but can be evaluated free of charge for 90 days by individuals. The 16-bit version works under both OS/2 and Windows. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.netscape.com in the netscape subdirectory. See Netscape's web site for information about mirror sites.
  • MMM
    • The MMM browser is a Unix/X browser written in the Caml Special Light programming language with a Tcl/Tk user interface. MMM supports HTML level 2 and also supports plug-in "applets" written in Caml Special Light. [URL:http://pauillac.inria.fr/~rouaix/mmm]
  • NCSA Mosaic for X
    • Unix browser using X11/Motif. The original multimedia browser. Full http 1.0 support including PUT-method forms, image maps, etc. Recent beta versions have limited support for tables. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mosaic.
  • NCSA Mosaic for VMS
    • Browser using X11/DecWindows/Motif. For the VMS operating system. Full http 1.0 support including PUT-method forms, image maps, etc. Probably the best browser available for VMS. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.digital.com in the directory pub/DEC/Mosaic.
  • Quadralay GWHIS Viewer (Commercial Mosaic)
    • Quadralay offers a commercial-grade (not free!) version of Mosaic for Unix systems, with Windows and Macintosh versions expected in the future. (URL is: http://www.quadralay.com/products/products.html#gwhis)
  • tkWWW Browser/Editor for X11
    • A Unix Browser/Editor for X11 (URL is [http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TkWWW/Status.html] ). Supports WSYIWYG HTML editing.
  • MidasWWW Browser
    • A Unix/X browser from Tony Johnson. (Beta, works well.)
  • Viola for X (Beta)
    • Viola has two versions for Unix/X: one using Motif, one using Xlib (no Motif). Handles HTML Level 3 forms and tables. Has extensions for multiple columning, collapsible/expandable list, client-side document include. Available by anonymous FTP from ora.com in /pub/www/viola. More information available at the URL http://xcf.berkeley.edu/ht/projects/viola/README.
  • Chimera
    • Unix/X Browser using Athena (doesn't require Motif). Supports forms, inline images, etc.; closest to Mosaic in feel of the non-Motif X11 browsers. Available for anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the directory /pub/chimera.
  • Emacs w3-mode
    • A WWW browser for emacs. Runs under Xwindows, NeXTstep, VMS, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, AmigaDOS, or just about any Unix system. Also has fonts, color, inline images, and mouse support if using Lemacs, Epoch, or Emacs 19. Also works in local mode under DOS and on the Macintosh. Available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3.
  • Arena
    • Arena's primary purpose is to be a testbed for HTML Level 3 documents. As a result, Arena supports many of the new and interesting features of HTML Level 3. As of this writing it is still in prerelease and expectations should be set accordingly! Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.w3.org in the directory pub/www/arena/.
  • Enhanced Mosaic
    • Enhanced Mosaic, from Spyglass, Incorporated, is the commercial version of NCSA Mosaic. Spyglass does sell the browser directly to the public, although you can download an evaluation version to try it out; instead, they seek to license it to various OEMs. You can learn more about their licensing arrangements and the existing licensees from the Spyglass home page (URL is [URL:http://www.spyglass.com/] ).

WHAT BROWSERS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THE ACORN RISCOS SYSTEM?

  • ANT Suite Browser
    • ANT Limited offers a complete Internet Suite for the RISC OS computers which includes a WWW browser and the rest of the usual Internet-related packages. See [URL:http://www.ant.co.uk/ant/prod/inetbroch/inet1.html] for more information.
  • arcweb
    • ArcWeb is a World-Wide Web browser for Acorn RISC OS computers, with RISC OS 3.1 or later.
  • webster
    • Another browser, about which I have no further information.

    The latter two browsers can be obtained by anonymous FTP from micros.hensa.ac.uk in the directory micros/arch/riscos.

BATCH-MODE "BROWSERS"

The following browsers retrieve the contents of the URL specified on the command line and are intended primarily for use in scripts. Note that most of the text-based Unix browsers can also do this.

  • Batch mode browser
    • A batch-mode "browser", url_get, which is available through the URL http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~zippy/url_get.html . It can be retrieved via anonymous FTP to ftp.cc.utexas.edu, as the file /pub/zippy/url_get.tar.Z. This package is intended for use in cron jobs and other settings in which fetching a page in a command-line fashion is useful.
  • Batch mode browser in tclX
    • A batch mode "browser" (URL retriever) written in extended Tcl (tclX) is available as well (URL is [URL:http://hplyot.obspm.fr/~dl/wwwtools.html] ).

I CAN'T GET SLIP OR PPP. I WANT WEB ACCESS. IS THERE A WAY?

YES! If you have a plain old Unix shell account on a Unix system, such as a SunOS or Ultrix system, there are two ways around the problem:

  • GUI Browsers that Talk to Unix
    • Microsoft Windows users can run SlipKnot or ICOMM, special browsers which operate using programs that may already be installed on your shell account (covered in detail in the MS Windows browsers section).
  • SLIP/PPP Emulators
    • Anyone with dialup access to a Unix shell account can use The Internet Adapter (TIA) or SLiRP, two programs which provide a pseudo-SLIP connection. SLiRP is free. TIA is not free, but there is a free two-week trial period and it is inexpensive. You can learn more about TIA at [URL:http://marketplace.com/tia/tiahome.html]. More information on SLiRP is available at URL:http://blitzen.canberra.edu.au/~danjo/]. If you have a Macintosh, check out the Macintosh TIA Users' FAQ, [URL:http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tia/faq.html], for additional help.

      "So what do I run on my machine at home?"

      Exactly the same software you would use for real SLIP; as far as your PC is concerned, it _is_ a SLIP connection. If you're unfamiliar with SLIP please check out a newsgroup relevant to your particular type of machine (Windows, Mac, or even Unix-based).

CAN I BROWSE HTML FILES LOCALLY WHEN I'M OFFLINE?

If you do not use Microsoft Windows, the answer is usually "no problem!" Just use the "Open File" or equivalent option on the file menu of your web browser, instead of "Open Location" or "Open URL".

Note: for the most part, this is not a problem for Windows 95 and Windows NT users. This section applies primarily to Windows 3.1 users.

If you use Microsoft Windows, and particularly if you use Netscape, you may have difficulty viewing local files when not connected to the net. Some web browsers will refuse to run unless there is functioning Internet software running on the system. Netscape offers a solution to this problem in the release notes to version 1.1 of their product. Essentially, you can install an "empty" Internet interface (winsock.dll) that keeps Netscape happy.

An easy way to do this for users of some Internet connectivity software is to launch your Internet software but refrain from dialing out. The details vary from one package of Internet software to another. It is helpful to change Autoload Home Page=yes to Autoload Home Page=no in your netscape.ini file in the [Main] section.

HOW CAN I ACCESS THE WEB THROUGH A FIREWALL?

A "proxy server" is a specialized HTTP server which (typically) runs on a firewall machine, providing access to the outside world for people inside the firewall. The CERN httpd can be configured to run as a proxy. Furthermore, it is able to perform caching of documents, resulting in faster response times.

If you cannot arrange to run a proxy server (definitely the recommended approach), read on:

For information on using NCSA Mosaic from behind a firewall, please read the following. In general, browsers can be made useful behind firewalls through the use of a package called "SOCKS"; the source must be modified slightly and rebuilt to accommodate this. whenever possible, work _with_ your network administrators to solve the problem, not against them.

An excerpt from the NCSA Mosaic FAQ:

NCSA Mosaic requires a direct internet connection to work, but some folks have put together a package that works behind firewalls. This is completely unsupported by NCSA, but here is the latest announcement:

  • November 15, 1993: C&C Software Technology Center (CSTC) of NEC Systems Lab has made available a version of SOCKS, a package for running Internet clients from behind firewalls without breaching security requirements, that includes a suitably modified version of Mosaic for X 2.0. _Beware: such a version is not supported by NCSA; we can't help with questions or problems arising from the modifications made by others._ But, we encourage you to check it out if it's interesting to you. Questions and problem notifications can be sent to Ying-Da Lee (_ylee@syl.dl.nec.com_).

I'M RUNNING XMOSAIC. WHY CAN'T I GET EXTERNAL VIEWERS WORKING?

Answer provided by Ronald E. Daniel (rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov):

  • Mosaic only looks at the .mime.types file if it has no idea what the document's type is. This is actually a very rare situation. Essentially all servers now use the HTTP/1.0 protocol, which means that they tell Mosaic (or other browsers) what the document's MIME Content-type is. The servers use a file very much like Mosaic's .mime.types file to infer the Content-type from the filename's extension.

    It is pretty simple to find out if this really is the problem. Use telnet to talk to the server and find out if it is assigning a MIME type to the document in question. Here's an example, looking at the home page for my server. (idaknow: is my shell prompt)

    idaknow: telnet www.acl.lanl.gov 80 // Connect to the httpd server
    Trying 128.165.148.3 ...
    Connected to www.acl.lanl.gov.
    Escape character is '^]'.
    HEAD /Home.html HTTP/1.0 // replace Home.html with your document
    // you supply the blank line
    HTTP/1.0 200 OK // the rest of this comes from the server
    Date: Wednesday, 25-May-94 19:18:11 GMT
    Server: NCSA/1.1
    MIME-version: 1.0
    Content-type: text/html // Here's the MIME Content-type
    Last-modified: Monday, 16-May-94 16:21:58 GMT
    Content-length: 1727
    Connection closed by foreign host.
    idaknow:

    In the example above, /Home.html will get http://www.acl.lanl.gov/Home.html. Normally servers will be configured to supply a Content-type of text/plain if they don't know what else to do. If this is the problem you are having, take a look at the TypesConfig documentation for NCSA's httpd. You can have the server look at the filename extension, supply the correct Content-type, then use your local .mailcap file to tell Mosaic what viewer to use to look at the document.

Russ Segal adds:

  • The answer from Ronald Daniel is essentially correct, but it needs a small addendum.
    When starting Moasic, you can specify a "fileProxy" which will fetch files for you:
    • "*fileProxy: http://socks/"

    If you do this, file: URLs are no longer strictly local accesses. So even if the URL is not http:, the proxy server must be upgraded as Mr. Daniel suggests.

I HAVE A WINDOWS PC OR MACINTOSH. WHY CAN'T I ACCESS WAIS URLS?

This answer provided by Michael Grady (m-grady@uiuc.edu):

  • The version of Mosaic for X has "wais client" code built-in to it. This was relatively easy for the developers to do, because there was already a set of library routines for talking to WAIS available for Unix as "public domain" (freeWAIS). I don't think there is such a library of routines for PC/Windows or Mac, which would make it much more difficult for the Mosaic versions for Windows and the Mac to add "wais client" capability. Therefore, at least for now, neither the Windows or Mac versions of Mosaic support direct query of a WAIS server (i.e. can act as wais clients themselves).

HOW DO I CONVERT HTML TO (PLAIN ASCII, POSTSCRIPT, OTHER PRINTABLE FORMATS)?

There are several ways. Most web browsers have a "save as ascii" option; the quality of the result varies. Lynx, in particular, being a text-based browser, does a credible job if you select the print option and choose "print to local file" instead of an actual printer. Graphical browsers often have a "save as postscript" option; again, quality varies.

A product designed expressly for this purpose is HTMLCon (URL is [URL:http://www.crl.com/~mikekell/index.html] ), a DOS command line application.

If your browser cannot save as postscript or another format which preserves in-line graphics, one option is to use Mozilla Print Gidget. You enter the URL for the page you want to convert and save the document that comes back.

Another interesting product is FaxBack , which allows you to retrieve of any web page from a fax machine.

Thanks to Neal McBurnett for his assistance with this section.

HOW CAN I SAVE AN INLINE IMAGE TO DISK?

Here are three ways:

  • 1. If you are using Netscape, just hold down the right mouse button (hold down the single mouse button for more than a second if using the Mac version) over the image. A menu will appear that includes the option of saving the image.
  • 2. Turn on "load to local disk" in your browser, if it has such an option; then reload images. You'll be prompted for filenames instead of seeing them on the screen. Be sure to shut it off when you're done with it.
  • 3. Choose "view source" and browse through the HTML source; find the URL for the inline image of interest to you; copy and paste it into the "Open URL" window. This should load it into your image viewer instead, where you can save it and otherwise muck about with it.

HOW DO I SEND NEWSGROUP POSTS IN HTML TO MY WEB CLIENT?

How to do this depends greatly on your system; if you have a Mac or Windows system, the answer is completely different. But, as food for thought, here is a simple shell script I use on my Unix account to send posts from rn and related newsreaders to Lynx. Put this text in the file "readwebpost" and use the "chmod" command to make it executable, then put it somewhere in your path (such as your personal bin directory):

#!/bin/sh 
echo \ > .article.html
cat >> .article.html
echo \ >> .article.html
lynx .article.html  < /dev/tty
rm .article.html

Then add the following line to your .rnmac file (create it if you don't already have one):

W  |readwebpost %C

Now, when you press "W" while reading a post in rn, a message will be sent to Lynx, and the links enclosed in it will be live.

Larry W. Virden provides the following version which invokes Mosaic instead, and is also capable of communicating with an already-running copy of Mosaic instead of launching another. (You can use the same rn macro as above, invoking "goto-xm" instead of "readwebpost".) Read the comments for details on the assumptions made by the script.

#! /bin/sh
# goto-xm, by Joseph T. Buck [jbuck@eecs.berkeley.edu]
# Modified heavily by Larry W. Virden [lvirden@cas.org]
# Script for use with newsreaders such as trn. Piping the article
# through this command causes xmosaic to pop up, pointing to the
# article. If an existing xmosaic (version 1.1 or later) exists,
# the USR1 method will be used to cause it to point to the correct
# article, otherwise a new one will be started.

# assumptions: ps command works as is on SunOS 4.1.x, may need changes
# on other platforms.

URL=`/bin/grep '^Message-ID:' | /bin/sed -e 's/.*</news:/' -e 's/>.*//'`
if [ "X$URL" = "X" ]; then 
  echo "USAGE: $0 [goto] [once] < USENET_msg" >&2 
  exit 1 
fi 

pid=`ps -xc | egrep '[Mm]osaic' | awk 'NR == 1 {print $1}'` 
p=`which Mosaic` 
gfile=/tmp/Mosaic.$pid 

$p "$URL" & 

if[ "$#" -gt 0 ] ; then 
  if [ "$1" = "goto" -o "$1" = "same" ] ; then 
  shift 
  echo "goto"> $gfile 
  else 
  echo "newwin" > $gfile 
  fi 
else 
  echo "newwin" > $gfile 
fi 
/bin/awk 'END { printf "'"$URL"'" }' </dev/null >> $gfile 
 
trap "echo signal encountered" 30 
kill -USR1 $pid 
 
exit 0

See also MosaicMail (URL is http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/mhonarc.doc.html ), a Perl script which pipes email and/or news to your current Mosaic session.

HOW CAN I GET SOUND FROM THE PC SPEAKER WITH WINMOSAIC?

This piece of wisdom donated by Hunter Monroe:

This section explains how to install sound on a PC which already has a working version of Mosaic for Microsoft Windows. Be warned in advance that the results may be poor.

To get Mosaic to produce sound out of the PC speaker, first, you need a driver for the speaker. You can get the Microsoft speaker driver from the URL ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE or by doing an Archie search to find it somewhere else. SPEAK.EXE is a self-extracting file. Copy the speak.exe file to a new directory, and then type "SPEAK" at the DOS prompt. Do not put the file SPEAKER.DRV in a separate directory from OEMSETUP.INF.

Now, you need to install the driver. In Windows, from the Program Manager choose successively Main/Control Panel/Drivers/Add/Unlisted or updated drivers/(enter path of SPEAK.EXE)/PC Speaker. At this point some strange sounds come out as the driver is initialized. Change the settings to improve the sound quality on the various sounds: tada, chimes, etc. Click OK when you are finished and choose the Restart windows option.

Having installed the speaker driver, you will now get sounds whenever you start Windows, make a mistake, or exit Windows. If you do not want this, from the Main/Control Panel/Sounds menu, make sure there is no X next to "Enable System Sounds."

Now, you need a sound viewer program that Mosaic can call to display sounds. NCSA unfortunately recommend WHAM, which does not work well with a PC speaker. Get the program WPLANY instead. You can find a copy nearby with an Archie search on the string "wplny"; the current version is WPLNY09B.ZIP. For details on archie and other basic issues related to FTP, please read the Usenet newsgroup news.announce.newusers.

Move the zip file to a new directory, and use an unzip program like pkunzip to unzip it, producing the files WPLANY.EXE and WPLANY.DOC. Then edit the MOSAIC.INI file to remove the "REM" before the line "TYPE9=audio/basic". Then, you need lines in the section below that read something like: audio/basic="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" audio/wav="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" where you have filled in the correct path for wplany.exe. The MOSAIC.INI file delivered with Mosaic may have NOTEPAD.EXE on the audio/basic line, but this will not work. Now, restart Mosaic, and you should now be able to produce sounds. To check this, with Mosaic choose File/Local File/\WINDOWS\*.WAV and then try to play TADA.WAV. Then, you might try the Mosaic Demo document for some .AU sounds, but you are lucky if your speaker produces something you can understand.