NETFIND

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 14:53:19 +0200 From: "brian@cernvax.cern.ch"@dxmint.cern.ch To: brian@cernvax.cern.ch, dimou@cernvax.cern.ch Subject: FYI Path: cernvax!mcsun!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!apple!motcsd!mcdcup!mcdchg!usenet From: xcaret@csn.org (Xcaret Research) Newsgroups: comp.newprod Subject: NetFind, whitepages service for the Internet Message-ID: <61338@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> Date: 24 Apr 91 14:42:49 GMT Sender: usenet@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com Followup-To: poster Organization: Colorado SuperNet Inc. Lines: 67 Approved: usenet@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com NetFind, from Xcaret Research, Inc., is a whitepages service for the Internet. Given a person's name and location or organization, NetFind returns their Internet electronic mail (email) address. NetFind differs from other whitepages facilities by offering fast and up to date service from your own machine. NetFind runs from the UNIX command line. To find John Smith at Bigstate University, you just type: % netfind smith bigstate NetFind returns the email address. Its that simple. NetFind operates on a Sun3 or Sun4 computer running SunOS 4.0 or later with access to the Internet. Uses only 4MB of disk space. Since NetFind runs from the command line, you can use NetFind from any remote terminal, Mac or PC that accesses a Sun. NetFind uses a unique method to actively search the Internet for your target. It does not attempt to keep a database of users across the Internet; that would be quite large and constantly out of date. Instead, NetFind uses the natural database of the Internet itself: it sends multiple parallel requests across the Internet to machines where it suspects the target may reside. NetFind queries these machines for the name you provide as well as for leads on other machines nearby. NetFind in turn searches these discovered machines and so on down the hierarchy until the address is found or there are no more machines to search. The whole process is surprisingly fast, because NetFind sends searches out in parallel. NetFind uses a reference file for domains and a location index. They take up about 3MB. The first file is a partial list of Internet domains. NetFind uses this list to prime its search. The list is by no means all of the computers it can search. Rather, it will use the information obtained from querying those machines to further its search. The second file is an index of location words. When you say: % netfind smith bigstate NetFind looks in this index for "bigstate". Then it resolves the information it sees with specific machines in the domain file and begins its search. So, the whole process goes from location word to index to domain file and then in parallel searches throughout the Internet. The name can be either a last name or a username. The location words are generally geographical or organizational (i.e., switzerland or sun) and can be combined to narrow the search (i.e., netfind smith bigstate university ). NetFind is sold with a single user license for $159. Please call for educational discounts and site licensing. You may order by phone, e- mail or postal mail (include P.O. number, check or credit card). Please specify your domain name, Sun3 or Sun4, and the format (electronic, floppy, 60MB, or 150MB tape). We don't charge for floppies, but cartridge tapes are an additional $30 to cover cost. Xcaret Research, Inc. 2060 Broadway, Suite 320 Boulder, CO 80302 (800) 736-1285 netfind@xcaret.com chibacity:jgore% ================== RFC 822 Headers ================== Received: by dxmint.cern.ch (cernvax) (5.57/3.14) id AA17927; Fri, 26 Apr 91 14:53:15 +0200 Received: by cernvax.cern.ch (5.57/Ultrix2.0-B) id AA10530; Fri, 26 Apr 91 15:00:44 +0200 Message-Id: <9104261300.AA10530@cernvax.cern.ch> Received: by cernvax.cern.ch (5.57/Ultrix2.0-B) id AA09984; Fri, 26 Apr 91 14:54:44 +0200 Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 14:54:44 +0200 Sender: brian@cernvax.cern.ch