The "Hands-On Internet for Business" Workshop

There are many Internet applications which allows the host to process incoming and outgoing data. They include the WWW server, "FINGER" server, mail information server, FTP server, Gopher server, WAIS server, etc. A host can also use these Internet applications to trigger the execution of other applications.

The "FINGER" server is the simplest of all the internet host applications. The "FINGER" server, when activated, performs a predefined query for information associated with the specified user or users of the host computer.

The World Wide Web (WWW) server accepts a file specification, retrieves the specified file, and transmits the file to the requestor. It also accepts predefined sets of data and triggers the predefined applications to process the data.

The mail information server is very similar to the WWW server except information requrests are received and requested information are transmitted via Internet mail and not as file transfer. The Mail information server can also maintain distribution lists, with which the server automatically mail those on the list new information.

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server receives and executes command for logging into a node, setting the default directory, obtaining directory listing, sending files, and receiveing files.

Gopher and WAIS servers interacts with clients to query indexed databases on client specified topics.