🚀 go-pugleaf

richb@kronos.com (Rich Braun) writes:
>We have just added an email gateway to our site, which effectively
>increases the potential number of Internet email users by a factor of
>twenty or so.
>The trouble is, of course, most of these users don't have logins on
>the system advertised as 'kronos.com' on Internet.  If someone out in
>the World at Large tries to use finger to learn someone's email
>address here, they're probably out of luck.   ...
>Ages ago, I used a TOPS-20 program called "watson" for this purpose.
>What's out there nowadays?  In order for our users to update their own
>info, they'd have to have some sort of platform-independent interface
>(probably email) into the database.

The big thing these days is a server called 'qi' put out by the
folks at uxc.cso.uiuc.edu.  It has a client program, 'ph', which allows
users to update their own info.  I highly recommend it- but it may
not be perfect for your situation, since ph assumes Internet access
is available between client and server.

Another information server that exists solely to give e-mail address
info is Horton, which automatically builds a directory by periodic
polling of local hosts with finger, then gives access to the database
via the whois protocol (and soon the finger & qi/ph protocols, too).

You can even use a program called phquery with either Horton or qi to get 
your server's sendmail to forward mail sent to first-last@server.foo.edu 
to the proper e-mail address, whether or not the target address is
on the Internet.
- Dan Kegel (dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov)

I think that you will find that a WHOIS (aka the NIS whois database)
will do what want (In the way that you want).  There is one such whois
server available via anonymous FTP on hamlet.caltech.edu in the
WHOIS_UNIX directory...

---Jack

-- 
Jack Stewart                                     E-Mail: jack@CCSF.Caltech.EDU
Caltech Concurrent Supercomputing Facilities,     Phone: 818-356-2153
Mail Code # 158-79, 391 S. Holliston, 
Pasadena, CA 91125.                            #include  <std.disclaimer>

In article <1992Jul27.212913.13369@kronos.com>, richb@kronos.com (Rich
Braun) writes:
|> We have just added an email gateway to our site, which effectively
|> increases the potential number of Internet email users by a factor of
|> twenty or so.
|> 
|> The trouble is, of course, most of these users don't have logins on
|> the system advertised as 'kronos.com' on Internet.  If someone out in
|> the World at Large tries to use finger to learn someone's email
|> address here, they're probably out of luck.  The standard finger server
|> provided by the O/S vendor (in this case, IBM) does not provide info
|> unless the user has a login.  And it'd be crazy for us to hand out
|> accounts to all our employees on our Internet gateway system:  the
|> system would be wide-open to password crackers.
|> 
|> Ages ago, I used a TOPS-20 program called "watson" for this purpose.
|> What's out there nowadays?  In order for our users to update their own
|> info, they'd have to have some sort of platform-independent interface
|> (probably email) into the database.
|> 
|> -rich

Rich,

We had a similar problem not long ago at the University of Western
Ontario. Our solution was to modify the finger daemon slightly so it
would generate a query to an X.500 Directory Service we built, and
return the appropriate information. The project was quite a bit of
work, but the end results were very good. The Directory allowed us to
query users on more than just userids. Soundex matches, addresses,
titles, and other criteria can be easily used. In addition the X.500
Directory service is independent of userids, so you can have
information about users without accounts (if it suits you). One
drawback however, is that the Directory service is *another* data
resource that must be updated in parallel to your existing ones.

The X.500 implementation package we used supplied a number of
interfaces into the Directory, suitable for administrative and general
use. They ranged in complexity from simple command line interfaces to
full blown wimp (Window, Icon, Mouse, Pointer) X-window interfaces.

If you are interested in having a look, try:

  finger larry@rubble.syslab.csd.uwo.ca

Our inspiration was another Directory service running at umich.edu.
Tim Howes is the resident expert there.

Cheers,

 +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+
 |  Larry Greenfield           |                                    |
 |  Member of Scientific Staff | Phone:  (613) 765-2602             |
 |  FiberWorld R&D             | E-mail: Larry.Greenfield@.bnr.ca   |
 |  Bell-Northern Research     |                   larryg@.bnr.ca   |
 |  Ottawa Canada              |                                    |
 +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+

In article <1992Jul28.213446.3836@cco.caltech.edu> jack@ccsf.caltech.edu (Jack Stewart) writes:
>                                           ... There is one such whois
>server available via anonymous FTP on hamlet.caltech.edu in the
>WHOIS_UNIX directory...

Last spring, I collected brief descriptions of this and a few other
whois-server implementations, and made them available via anonymous
FTP in

    sipb.mit.edu:/pub/whois/whois-servers.source

Matt