what is traceroute and how do I use it?
The traceroute utility checks how many "hops" (transfers through other computers on a network) it takes for your computer to contact another computer. You can use traceroute if you know the other computer's IP address, web site address, or name (e.g., 129.79.1.1, www.indiana.edu, or ns.indiana.edu).
To access the utility:
1.Open the command prompt:
◦Windows 7 or Vista: From the Start menu, in the search field, type cmd , and then press Enter.
◦Previous versions: From the Start menu, select Run... . In the "Open:" box, type cmd , and then press Enter.
2.At the command prompt, enter tracert example , where example is the IP address, name, or web site of the computer you are trying to access. For example, if you enter tracert www.indiana.edu , you should see something similar to the following:
Tracing route to www.indiana.edu [129.79.78.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 168.91.41.1
2 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms indy-bloomington-s4-6.ivy.tec.in.us [168.91.9.129]
3 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms akicita-lena.ivy.tec.in.us [168.91.1.4]
4 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms indnet.ivy.tec.in.us [168.91.1.130]
5 71 ms 40 ms 50 ms ind-s1-0-7-T1.ind.net [157.91.8.62]
6 80 ms 40 ms 40 ms serverfarm-atm0.ind.net [199.8.76.231]
7 60 ms 90 ms 80 ms iupui-atm6-0-100.ind.net [157.91.9.78]
8 50 ms 40 ms 90 ms indy-dmz.atm.iupui.edu [134.68.15.103]
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 40 ms 70 ms 90 ms wcc6-gw.ucs.indiana.edu [129.79.8.6]
11 * 40 ms 50 ms viator.ucs.indiana.edu [129.79.78.8]
Trace complete.
The first column, the hop count, represents the number of stops your information has made along the route to attempt to contact the other computer. The next three columns are the round-trip times in milliseconds for three different attempts to reach the destination. The last column is the name of the host that responded to the request.
The above example shows that a computer user on ivy.tec.in.us ran a traceroute to www.indiana.edu. On the fifth hop, the request left the Ivy Tech network and went to the ind.net network. On the eighth hop, the request went to the iupui.edu network. Finally, on the tenth hop, the request found its way to the indiana.edu network. Since there is a "Request timed out" message on the ninth hop, you might guess that there could be some problem between the iupui.edu network and the indiana.edu network. If you are seeing other problems, such as the web page at http://www.indiana.edu/ loading slowly, this could indicate the location of the problem.
In many cases, a network technician will need to analyze the problem further. To aid in this effort, you can save the output of the traceroute program as a text file by entering the following command, where example is the IP address, name, or web site you are trying to access:
tracert example > test.txt
You can then send the test.txt file to your computer support provider for further diagnosis.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
What is a MOO?
MOO stands for MUD object oriented, and the acronym MUD can be translated as multi-user domain, multi-user dimension or multi-user dungeon. The MOO is a text-based virtual reality system, which was once commonly used as a means of socializing or game playing. The idea for MOOs came from the number of people who played games online together, which were often text-based adventure games.
The earliest MOO programming was developed by Stephen White, but the first huge step was the text-based “world” called LambdaMOO, created by Pavel Curtis, who corrected earlier bugs in White’s programs. It first went up in 1990, when most people had only dial up connections to the Internet, and was often accessed through UNIX based servers, through telnet connections. Users could not only talk and chat in various “rooms” together, but could also create their own objects, rooms, characters, and commands using fairly simple programming, called MOO programming language, which then would be added to the total MOO.
At the height of its popularity, Lambda had over 10,000 members, but now this number has dwindled with more user friendly text-based Internet virtual worlds. Unfortunately too, Lambda became primarily associated with Internet flirtations and graphic sexual liaisons. Early servers and too much traffic on MOOs could also create significant “lag” which created impatience and annoyance among users.
A more “friendly” application of MOOs was applied to teach distance learners, or to conduct online forums and classes, since these domains allowed for multiple users to communicate. Other MOOs allowed people of like minds to play scrabble together, or perhaps convene on issues in their profession. Yet others became the new forum for adventure games or to create fantasy worlds like Rupert, which is based on the Douglas Adams book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
MOOs tend to have administrators called wizards, who can expel people from the MOO and might occasionally offer technical assistance. However, newbies were warned to read all help and frequently asked questions (FAQs) before approaching a wizard for help. Some wizards resented intrusions when information to a question could be found elsewhere. Some MOOs also had built in registration limits, but many MOOs like Lambda, allowed people to register as guests. Even if their characters had been expelled, they could come back.
The MOO heyday is primarily over. There are now multiple user online forums that allow for quicker communications, chats, and the like, and even allow for graphic based fantasy worlds instead of those based on text. The charm of MOOs, however, was the individual’s participation in the design. People came together to build “new worlds” of text.
The earliest MOO programming was developed by Stephen White, but the first huge step was the text-based “world” called LambdaMOO, created by Pavel Curtis, who corrected earlier bugs in White’s programs. It first went up in 1990, when most people had only dial up connections to the Internet, and was often accessed through UNIX based servers, through telnet connections. Users could not only talk and chat in various “rooms” together, but could also create their own objects, rooms, characters, and commands using fairly simple programming, called MOO programming language, which then would be added to the total MOO.
At the height of its popularity, Lambda had over 10,000 members, but now this number has dwindled with more user friendly text-based Internet virtual worlds. Unfortunately too, Lambda became primarily associated with Internet flirtations and graphic sexual liaisons. Early servers and too much traffic on MOOs could also create significant “lag” which created impatience and annoyance among users.
A more “friendly” application of MOOs was applied to teach distance learners, or to conduct online forums and classes, since these domains allowed for multiple users to communicate. Other MOOs allowed people of like minds to play scrabble together, or perhaps convene on issues in their profession. Yet others became the new forum for adventure games or to create fantasy worlds like Rupert, which is based on the Douglas Adams book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
MOOs tend to have administrators called wizards, who can expel people from the MOO and might occasionally offer technical assistance. However, newbies were warned to read all help and frequently asked questions (FAQs) before approaching a wizard for help. Some wizards resented intrusions when information to a question could be found elsewhere. Some MOOs also had built in registration limits, but many MOOs like Lambda, allowed people to register as guests. Even if their characters had been expelled, they could come back.
The MOO heyday is primarily over. There are now multiple user online forums that allow for quicker communications, chats, and the like, and even allow for graphic based fantasy worlds instead of those based on text. The charm of MOOs, however, was the individual’s participation in the design. People came together to build “new worlds” of text.
Telnet
Telnet is a protocol that allows you to connect to remote computers (called hosts) over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet). You use software called a telnet client on your computer to make a connection to a telnet server (i.e., the remote host). Once your telnet client establishes a connection to the remote host, your client becomes a virtual terminal, allowing you to communicate with the remote host from your computer. In most cases, you'll need to log into the remote host, which requires that you have an account on that system. Occasionally, you can log in as guest or public without having an account.
Telnet clients are available for all major operating systems.
Command-line telnet clients are built into most versions of Mac OS X, Windows (95 and later), Unix, and Linux. To use them, go to their respective command lines (i.e., the Terminal application in Mac OS X, the shell in Unix or Linux, or the DOS prompt in Windows), and then enter:
telnet host
Replace host with the name of the remote computer to which you wish to connect.
Telnet is a contraction of the two words Telecommunications Network, and is one of the major network protocols used on the Internet. It is one of the earliest network protocols, and one of the only original protocols still in common use on the internet. It was developed in 1969, with the RFC 15, and has evolved over the years to be a robust protocol, although with mounting security concerns it is often foregone in place of the secure SSH protocol.
Unlike the graphical interfaces of the HTTP protocol, which have given us the World Wide Web, telnet is a text-based protocol. The original purpose of telnet was to have an easy interface for terminals to interact with one another, using relatively simple command structures and accessible interfaces. Although still in use, telnet is rarely used by the majority of the internet-browsing public, who instead use HTTP browsers and email clients for the majority of their connections.
In the age before personal computers, anyone who wanted to use a computer generally had to access a terminal that was hooked up to a massive mainframe. Originally, each terminal was hooked up to only one machine, which led to a number of problems. For example, if one person needed to use a number of different machines, each of which specialized in a different task, they would need to physically go to each different terminal to do one job. This could be frustrating if the terminals were located throughout a large building, but was particularly maddening of the mainframe you needed to use was located at an institution in a different city or country from you.
The telnet protocol helped overcome this difficulty. By using a simple suite of commands, users could log in to a distant terminal and ask the mainframe there to undertake whatever processes they needed accomplished. The results would come back to them through telnet, and it was as though they were sitting in front of the terminal itself. In many ways, telnet helped revolutionize the way research was done, and helped build what would eventually become the internet we know today.
Of course, not all of the early uses for telnet were so practical. In fact, one of the ways in which telnet is still used to this day has its roots back in 1978, when a student at Essex University built on the earlier success of terminal games like Adventure and Zork to create a Multi-User Dungeon game, or MUD. These virtual environments, which include other varieties like MUSHes and MOOs, allow multiple people to connect to a terminal via the telnet protocol. Once there, they can play a collective game, often fantasy themed, by inputting text commands and reading the responses and inputs from other players. Although the use of MUDs has diminished with the advent of graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), they still remain a major use of the telnet protocol, with hundreds of thousands of players worldwide.
Although at one point telnet was used widely as a protocol by network administrators and those who needed to deal with their servers, it is rarely used for this purpose anymore. In 1995, a researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, fed up with the security holes in telnet which allowed for malicious password sniffing and attacks, built a new protocol to replace it. This protocol, the Secure Shell, or SSH, has most of the same features of telnet, but has much more robust security.
In the early days of the Internet, Telnet was also used to connect with something called a free-net, which is just what it sounds like: an open-access computer system. This was in part because dial up modems were so slow, whereas Telnet worked a lot faster. With the advent of high speed internet providers, however, most free-nets have shut down.
How Telnet Works
Telnet uses software, installed on your computer, to create a connection with the remote host. The Telnet client (software), at your command, will send a request to the Telnet server (remote host). The server will reply asking for a user name and password. If accepted, the Telnet client will establish a connection to the host, thus making your computer a virtual terminal and allowing you complete access to the host's computer.
Telnet requires the use of a user name and password, which means you need to have previously set up an account on the remote computer. In some cases, however, computers with Telnet will allow guests to log on with restricted access.
Does my Computer Have Telnet?
Every major computer operating system, including Unix, Linux, Mac OS and Windows, has Telnet capabilities and may even have Telnet built into them. To find out, open the command box in your system (for Windows, that would be the "run" function in the Start menu that opens the DOS prompt) and enter the command: TELNET HOST, with HOST being the name of the remote host computer with which you would like to connect.
Interestingly, Windows Vista does not automatically run Telnet. To run Telnet on Vista, you must activate the application by going to your Start menu, click on the "Control Panel," click on "Programs," and choose "Turn Windows features on or off." A dialog box will appear, and you should see Telnet Client listed, with a box next to it. Click on the box to select Telnet, then click "OK" and wait until installation is complete.
When you want to exit the Telnet application, you need to run the command prompt again on your own computer. Different operating systems use different commands to exit, such as QUIT, CLOSE and LOGOFF. Windows uses LOGOFF. If none of the commands work, you can try ABORT; however, this command serves only to end Telnet on your end, sometimes leaving it running on the remote host computer, so use ABORT only as your last option.
How to Connect to a Telnet Server
Telnet is a program that allows to connect to and communicate with a remote server, sometimes referred to as a telnet server. You can execute the full range of commands on the remote sever using a telnet connection on your local computer. Telnet does not encrypt information (for example, passwords) sent over, and hence such a connection is not secure.
How to Set Up a Telnet Server
Telnet is a text-based program that allows you to connect to other computers remotely. In Windows Vista and 7, this program is available as part of the operating system, but not installed. To setup the Telnet server you must install the program and establish the group of users. You can then open the Telnet window and manually enter commands. The process is quite complex, but Telnet allows you to work on another computer remotely, just as if you were sitting right in front of it.
Telnet clients are available for all major operating systems.
Command-line telnet clients are built into most versions of Mac OS X, Windows (95 and later), Unix, and Linux. To use them, go to their respective command lines (i.e., the Terminal application in Mac OS X, the shell in Unix or Linux, or the DOS prompt in Windows), and then enter:
telnet host
Replace host with the name of the remote computer to which you wish to connect.
Telnet is a contraction of the two words Telecommunications Network, and is one of the major network protocols used on the Internet. It is one of the earliest network protocols, and one of the only original protocols still in common use on the internet. It was developed in 1969, with the RFC 15, and has evolved over the years to be a robust protocol, although with mounting security concerns it is often foregone in place of the secure SSH protocol.
Unlike the graphical interfaces of the HTTP protocol, which have given us the World Wide Web, telnet is a text-based protocol. The original purpose of telnet was to have an easy interface for terminals to interact with one another, using relatively simple command structures and accessible interfaces. Although still in use, telnet is rarely used by the majority of the internet-browsing public, who instead use HTTP browsers and email clients for the majority of their connections.
In the age before personal computers, anyone who wanted to use a computer generally had to access a terminal that was hooked up to a massive mainframe. Originally, each terminal was hooked up to only one machine, which led to a number of problems. For example, if one person needed to use a number of different machines, each of which specialized in a different task, they would need to physically go to each different terminal to do one job. This could be frustrating if the terminals were located throughout a large building, but was particularly maddening of the mainframe you needed to use was located at an institution in a different city or country from you.
The telnet protocol helped overcome this difficulty. By using a simple suite of commands, users could log in to a distant terminal and ask the mainframe there to undertake whatever processes they needed accomplished. The results would come back to them through telnet, and it was as though they were sitting in front of the terminal itself. In many ways, telnet helped revolutionize the way research was done, and helped build what would eventually become the internet we know today.
Of course, not all of the early uses for telnet were so practical. In fact, one of the ways in which telnet is still used to this day has its roots back in 1978, when a student at Essex University built on the earlier success of terminal games like Adventure and Zork to create a Multi-User Dungeon game, or MUD. These virtual environments, which include other varieties like MUSHes and MOOs, allow multiple people to connect to a terminal via the telnet protocol. Once there, they can play a collective game, often fantasy themed, by inputting text commands and reading the responses and inputs from other players. Although the use of MUDs has diminished with the advent of graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), they still remain a major use of the telnet protocol, with hundreds of thousands of players worldwide.
Although at one point telnet was used widely as a protocol by network administrators and those who needed to deal with their servers, it is rarely used for this purpose anymore. In 1995, a researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, fed up with the security holes in telnet which allowed for malicious password sniffing and attacks, built a new protocol to replace it. This protocol, the Secure Shell, or SSH, has most of the same features of telnet, but has much more robust security.
In the early days of the Internet, Telnet was also used to connect with something called a free-net, which is just what it sounds like: an open-access computer system. This was in part because dial up modems were so slow, whereas Telnet worked a lot faster. With the advent of high speed internet providers, however, most free-nets have shut down.
How Telnet Works
Telnet uses software, installed on your computer, to create a connection with the remote host. The Telnet client (software), at your command, will send a request to the Telnet server (remote host). The server will reply asking for a user name and password. If accepted, the Telnet client will establish a connection to the host, thus making your computer a virtual terminal and allowing you complete access to the host's computer.
Telnet requires the use of a user name and password, which means you need to have previously set up an account on the remote computer. In some cases, however, computers with Telnet will allow guests to log on with restricted access.
Does my Computer Have Telnet?
Every major computer operating system, including Unix, Linux, Mac OS and Windows, has Telnet capabilities and may even have Telnet built into them. To find out, open the command box in your system (for Windows, that would be the "run" function in the Start menu that opens the DOS prompt) and enter the command: TELNET HOST, with HOST being the name of the remote host computer with which you would like to connect.
Interestingly, Windows Vista does not automatically run Telnet. To run Telnet on Vista, you must activate the application by going to your Start menu, click on the "Control Panel," click on "Programs," and choose "Turn Windows features on or off." A dialog box will appear, and you should see Telnet Client listed, with a box next to it. Click on the box to select Telnet, then click "OK" and wait until installation is complete.
When you want to exit the Telnet application, you need to run the command prompt again on your own computer. Different operating systems use different commands to exit, such as QUIT, CLOSE and LOGOFF. Windows uses LOGOFF. If none of the commands work, you can try ABORT; however, this command serves only to end Telnet on your end, sometimes leaving it running on the remote host computer, so use ABORT only as your last option.
How to Connect to a Telnet Server
Telnet is a program that allows to connect to and communicate with a remote server, sometimes referred to as a telnet server. You can execute the full range of commands on the remote sever using a telnet connection on your local computer. Telnet does not encrypt information (for example, passwords) sent over, and hence such a connection is not secure.
How to Set Up a Telnet Server
Telnet is a text-based program that allows you to connect to other computers remotely. In Windows Vista and 7, this program is available as part of the operating system, but not installed. To setup the Telnet server you must install the program and establish the group of users. You can then open the Telnet window and manually enter commands. The process is quite complex, but Telnet allows you to work on another computer remotely, just as if you were sitting right in front of it.
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