Cheatsheet for the Internet (1993)

Bill Thompson commissioned me to draw this cheatsheet when he worked for training company “Computer College”. I recently found paperwork that dates it accurately to October 1993.

The WWW section describes non-browser (i.e., telnet) navigation of the World Wide Web. This cheatsheet came out just as the NCSA Mosaic web browser was released in beta. The online world was changing, rapidly.

Victorian kids hacking

The Internet

“In which nodes, hubs & configurations of computing engines and mock-thinking machinery — regardless of their actual whereabouts upon the Earth — are thoroughly interconnected for the convenient and effective remedying of information deficit.”

six useful facilities

telnet – ftp – nn – archie – gopher – WWW

Intenet cheatsheet

See more vintage Beholder nostalgia.

telnet

for the wondrous ability of working a machine that is in a distant or foreign place

open
start a connection
close
end a connection
help
print help information
quit
finish using telnet
set echo
enable or disable local echoing
set escape
set current escape character (] by default)
z
suspect telnet
Ctl-]
enter command mode
RETURN
leave command mode

ftp

for the automated toing and froing of files at differing sites or locations

For example, use the ftp server ftp.pipex.net

open
connect to a new system
close
end a current ftp session with current connection
help
print help information
get
get a file from the remote system
put
move a file to the remote system
account
supply accounting info. on this FTP session
ascii or binary
transfer text (ASCII) or binary files
cd
change remote directory
dir
full directory listing on remote system
lcd
change “local” directory
ls
short directory listing on remote system
pwd
print current remote directory

usenet news

for the reading of multifarious & modern information posted by the ladies, gentlemen and automata of the internet.

nn comands in “Selection Mode”

a..z
select article or group
space
move to next item
< >
move backwards or forward one page
K
kill or auto-select items
N
move to next newsgroup
Q
quit
U
unsubscribe or subscribe

archie

find FTP archive for discovering the location of a file whose own name is mostly known

Public archie servers: login as “archie” at telnet archie.rutgers.edu or sura.net or unl.edu or ans.net or uqam.net or doc.ic.ac.uk

mail
mail result of last search back to you
prog
search for a file by name
quit
exit from archie program
show search
show current search type
set search
show current search type
set search
change search type (exact, regexp, case, subcase)
whatis
search descriptive index

Gopher

menu-based serch for the excavation of general facts and stored knowledge

Public Gopher services: login as “gopher” at
telnet gopher.uiui.edu
telnet consultant.micro.umn.edu

1..9
select an item from the menu
q
quit from Gopher
u
return to previous item
m
mail an item to you
s
save an item in a file

WWW

World-wide-web hypertext search for the exploration & revelation of things known and stored throughout the globe

Public WWW server:
telnet info.cern.ch

help
go to introductory help page
quit
leave the World Wide Web
number
select a link to follow
find
search indexed database
home
return to home page
back
return to previous page
next
read next item in sequence
ret
return to a previous page
RETURN
go to next page of this document
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