CHAPTER 14
                 USING THE GOPHER SERVICE


The Gopher Center can be found on the Main menu.   The 
Gopher is an Internet service that enables you to go into 
"Gopherspace" and search out information of interest to 
you from many computers located around the world.  What 
you can find is limited mainly by your time and skills as 
a hunter.

The Gophers are arranged by broad subject.  Note that 
there is much duplication of services among the different 
categories.  Gophers point to each other frequently so 
many menu items on different systems lead you to the same 
destination.

Remember the commands for navigating the Gopher menus are 
significantly different from the ones for the Freeport 
menus so be sure to note the differences.

Before using Gopher there are a number of points that 
should be  made.  

First, Gopher requires that you use a fairly intelligent 
terminal - a VT100, or better.  If you try to use it with 
a non- compatible terminal, you may get very erratic and 
garbled results.

In addition, the menus for the Gopher service operate 
somewhat differently from the standard menus elsewhere in 
OSFN.

On some Gophers, the menu item that is currently active is 
shown by an arrow in the left margin.  This can be moved 
up or down by use of the up/down arrow keys on your 
keyboard.  Entering a <return> will activate the item 
selected.

Some other commands, as shown at the bottom of the screen, 
differ from what you are used to.  In particular, the 
command "u" will move you up one menu, rather than the "p" 
command.

It must be noted that this worldwide Gopher service is 
relatively new, the distributed information structure very 
broad and complex, and things do not always work.  You may 
get messages to the effect that Gopher "cannot connect".  
This means that either the network is too busy at the 
moment, or a server is
unavailable for some reason.  It is suggested that you try 
again some other time.

What you get, or don't get from a particular search is 
entirely dependent on the information that is in place on 
the Gopher network.

OSFN HAS NO CONTROL OVER THIS, AND ACCEPTS NO 
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING BUT PROVIDING YOU WITH ACCESS 
TO IT.

If you are repeatedly unable to connect to a Gopher on the 
menu, send E-mail to Free-Net@osfn.rhilinet.
gov and explain what you've encountered.

NOTE:  The use of Gopher for the transfer of binary 
       and program files has been disabled on OSFN.  
       This is in part to avoid placing excessive 
       demands on the Internet, and also because OSFN 
       policy is not to compete with commercial 
       services in the distribution of software.

Because the Gopher offerings are so broad, it is 
impossible to describe them fully here.  Your best option 
is to go and explore Gopherspace on your own.  Happy 
hunting!

.