khan@cs.purdue.EDU (Muhammad Farrukh Khan) (07/11/90)
How does one finger a bitnet address? Thanks! Farrukh khan@cs.purdue.edu
DOUG@ysub.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) (07/12/90)
In article <11025@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, khan@cs.purdue.EDU (Muhammad Farrukh Khan) says: > >How does one finger a bitnet address? Thanks! > It depends. If you have a bitnet-type (NJE) connection via RSCS, JNET, UREP, or some other program that looks like RSCS, and you have direct or indirect NJE links to that site, you can issue a command to determine the number of users, the names of the users, or to 'finger' a particular user. On VM systems, it would be 'CP SM rscs-server CMD node CPQ USER' (to get a count), 'CP SM rscs-server CMD node CPQ NAMES' (list of names) or 'CP SM rscs-server CMD node CPQ U userid' (query a user). The specific syntax for sending a command (CP SM rscs-server CMD) will vary among different RSCS-lookalike programs. Also, you must use their NJE address, not their internet/domain address (for example, we're YSUB.BITNET = nje address YSUB, our internet address is YSUB.YSU.EDU). Also, be aware that some sites (for security or network resources reasons) have disables some or all of these commands. A site that has 400+ users logged on would send back 100+ messages via bitnet. ----- There are also bitnet-accessable user directory servers. Some of them are accessable by message (bitnet-type connections only), others accept e-mail queries as well. Some LISTSERV servers have user directory services active, as well. These servers generally assume you already know the name and/or userid of the person you want information about, and generally DON'T indicate whether the person is logged on or not. In these cases, there is no standard (LISTSERV and the University of Kentucky Whois server are the closest ones I know of). ----- If the BITNET site is running an IP (port 79) finger-server, and you know the internet (not bitnet) address of that site, it would respond with whatever the particular finger-server is supposed to reply. In this case, the fact that the site is also a Bitnet site is moot, because you're using IP to access them. On our VM system, we run the Columbia finger-server code. It returns the same information that CPQ via RSCS/Bitnet would return (rather terse, just one or more user-terminal pairs, or 'userid not logged on'). -- Doug Sewell, Tech Support, Computer Center, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH 44555 E-mail: DOUG@YSUB.BITNET, DOUG@YSUB.YSU.EDU, ...!uunet!ysub.ysu.edu!doug >> I am not a wizard. What I do isn't magic. I am a computer professional.
terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr) (07/12/90)
In article <11025@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, khan@cs.purdue.EDU (Muhammad Farrukh Khan) writes: > How does one finger a bitnet address? Thanks! [I'm the maintainer for the DECUS VMS Finger code] If the host you're interested in is also directly on Internet, they probably support regular Finger protocol via TCP. The question then becomes how to find the equivalent Internet address for the host 8-). Other than that, if you have some way of generating NJE commands on BITNET, you can issue a CPQ N command, which will provide varying levels of output, depending on the host operating system and networking software. Not all such software uses this syntax, though. A feature for the (impending) major update of VMS Finger is the ability to respond to Finger requests delivered via mail, so (in the future) you could send mail to FINGER@SPCVXA.BITNET with text containing Finger commands which would be executed and the results mailed back to you. By the way, there's a mailing list for discussing Finger-style programs. It's mainly centered on the VMS and RSTS versions, but any other discussions about Finger, WHOIS servers, etc. are also welcome. To subscribe, send mail to the request address: i-finreq@spcvxa.spc.edu (or i-finreq@spcvxa.bitnet). Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381