5.2 BITNET
    
 
As if Usenet and mailing lists were not enough, there are Bitnet 
"discussion groups" or "lists."  

Bitnet is an international network linking colleges and universities, but 
it uses a different set of technical protocols for distributing 
information from the Internet or Usenet. It offers hundreds of discussion 
groups, comparable in scope to Usenet newsgroups.  As with Internet 
mailing lists, Bitnet discussions take place in e-mail. However, where 
mailing lists are often maintained by a person, all Bitnet discussion 
groups are automated -- you subscribe to them through messages to a 
"listserver" computer.  This is a kind of robot moderator that controls 
distribution of messages on the list.  In many cases, it also maintains 
indexes and archives of past postings in a given discussion group, which 
can be handy if you want to get up to speed with a discussion or just 
search for some information related to it. 

Many Bitnet discussion groups are now "translated" into Usenet form and 
carried through Usenet in the bit.listserv hierarchy.  In general, it's 
probably better to read messages through Usenet if you can.  It saves 
some storage space on your host system's hard drives as well as reducing 
clutter in your mailbox. Think of opening your e-mailbox one day to find 
200 messages in it -- 199 of them from a discussion group and one of them 
a "real" e-mail message that's important to you. 

Subscribing and canceling subscriptions is done through an e-mail message 
to the listserver computer.  For addressing, all listservers are known as 
"listserv" (yep) at some Bitnet address.  This means you will have to add 
".bitnet" to the end of the address, if it's in a form like this: 
listserv@miamiu. For example, if you have an interest in environmental 
issues, you might want to subscribe to the Econet discussion group.  To 
subscribe, send an e-mail message to 
 
     listserv@miamiu.bitnet
 
Some Bitnet listservers are also connected to the Internet, so if you 
see a listserver address ending in ".edu", you can e-mail the 
listserver without adding ".bitnet" to the end. 

Always leave the "subject:" line blank in a message to a listserver.  
Inside the message, you tell the listserver what you want, with a series 
of simple commands: 
 
subscribe group Your Name    To subscribe to a list, where "group"
                             is the list name and "Your Name" is 
                             your full name, for example:
                             subscribe econet Henry Fielding
 
unsubscribe group Your Name  To discontinue a group, for example:
                             unsubscribe econet Henry Fielding
 
list global                  This sends you a list of all available 
                             Bitnet discussion groups.  But be careful 
                             -- the list is VERY long! 
 
get refcard                  Sends you a list of other commands you 
                             can use with a listserver, such as 
                             commands for retrieving past postings 
                             from a discussion group. 
 
Each of these commands goes on a separate line in your message (and you 
can use one or all of them).  If you want to get a list of all Bitnet 
discussion groups, send e-mail to 
 
     listserv@bitnic.educom.edu
 
Leave the "subject:" line blank and use the list global command.
     
When you subscribe to a Bitnet group, there are two important differences 
from Usenet. 

First, when you want to post a message for others to read in the 
discussion group, you send a message to the group name at its Bitnet 
address.  Using Econet as an example, you would mail the message to: 
 
     econet@miamiu.bitnet
 
Note that this is different from the listserv address you used to 
subscribe to the group to begin with.  Use the listserv address ONLY to 
subscribe to or unsubscribe from a discussion group.  If you use the 
discussion-group address to try to subscribe or unsubscribe, your message 
will go out to every other subscriber, many of whom will think unkind 
thoughts, which they may share with you in an e-mail message). 

The second difference relates to sending an e-mail message to the author 
of a particular posting.  Usenet newsreaders such as rn and nn let you do 
this with one key.  But if you hit your R key to respond to a discussion-
group message, your message will go to the listserver, and from there to 
everybody else on the list!  This can prove embarrassing to you and 
annoying to others. To make sure your message goes just to the person who 
wrote the posting, take down his e-mail address from the posting and then 
compose a brand-new message. Remember, also, that if you see an e-mail 
address like IZZY@INDYVMS, it's a Bitnet address. 

Two Bitnet lists will prove helpful for delving further into the network.  
NEW-LIST tells you the names of new discussion groups. To subscribe, send 
a message to listserv@ndsuvm1.bitnet: 
 
     sub NEW-LIST Your Name
 
INFONETS is the place to go when you have questions about Bitnet.  It is 
also  first rate for help on questions about all major computer networks 
and how to reach them.  To subscribe, send e-mail to 
info-nets-request@think.com: 
 
     sub INFONETS Your Name
 
Both of these lists are also available on Usenet, the former as 
bit.listserv.new-list; the latter as bit.listserv.infonets (sometimes 
bit.listserv.info-nets).