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WWW by E-Mail

In 1994, Arthur Secret of the World Wide Web Consortium developed an e-mail browser for the WWW that he named an Agora server. Since that time many other web-by-e-mail (or webmail) servers have been developed and put in service around the world.

These services provide e-mail only access to information resources stored on the World-Wide Web. The servers enable e-mail only users to simulate the experience of browsing the Web by sending e-mail requests for either text or HTML versions of documents stored on World Wide Web sites.

The user sends an e-mail request to an web-by-mail server requesting a particular Web document and the document is returned via e-mail in either text or HTML format. The returned HTML documents are formatted suitably for a text browser.

To retrieve a document, you just have to specify its "address", called a "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL).

For example, the URL of this document is:

http://www.expita.com/howto1.html

This means that to get this web page by e-mail, you just have to send e-mail to a server using the proper syntax. A list of e-mail only servers that support web page retrievals can be found in my E-mail Servers Listing.

Agora

Agora servers skip the Subject line and use the message body with the commands to retrieve the web pages.

=======================================================================
To: agora@dna.affrc.go.jp OR agora@kamakura.mss.co.jp
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
    SEND http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
=======================================================================

NOTE: The commands are not the same on every server - some of the Agora like servers (w3mail servers) use the command GET instead of SEND and others just use the URL without a SEND/GET keyword. Send the "help" command to find out how each Agora like server works.

When you retrieve a hypertext document from the web, you will notice numbers in square brackets such as [5] next to some special words.

   Network by UNINETT[5].

This means you may access a new document, hopefully related to the word(s) preceding the [5]. If you are interested in retrieving this new document, look at the bottom of the returned document in the section "*** References from this document ***" and find the URL next to the number. Then, just copy the URL next to number, and paste it in the body of a e-mail message you send to an [Agora server].

*** References from this document ***
...
[5] http://www.uninett.no/index.en.html
...

LIMITS

Agora servers are limited to 5000 lines. Currently the standard for e-mail is approximately 72 to 80 characters per line so we have between 360,000 and 400,000 characters or bytes. As there are 1024 bytes in 1K we have between 352K and 391K that can be transmitted via an Agora server.

Also note that in retrieving binary files they will be uuencoded which increases their size about one-third.

If you are trying to retreive a text or binary file from a web page and it exceeds the limits of the Agora or other servers, you may wish to use gophermail instead. The gophermail servers allow the retrieval of verrrry large files. See WWW Files By Gophermail.

RESEND COMMAND

One Agora server supports the "rsend" command which allows you to "resend" the document requested to a different address than the one from which the mail message was sent. This is a handy feature if you are using a different mail server (for instance, your work address) and you wish the mail sent to your normal mail address. I use this feature when I'm at work to make sure the message is sent to my Netcom account.

    rsend gboyd@netcom.com [URL]

DEEP COMMAND

One Agora server supports the "deep" command which is the same as "SEND", but in addition also sends you the documents referred to in the URL you specified. (If the documents are too large, you will get only the first 5000 lines of what "deep" should provide). Be cautious when using the "DEEP" command as the Agora server might mail you several dozen documents!

SOURCE COMMAND

All the Agora servers support the "SOURCE" command which allows you to retrieve the web page with all the HTML formatting intact. In this manner, you would be able to view the web page offline on your PC if you have a web browser program.

BSOURCE COMMAND

One Agora server supports the "BSOURCE" command which is the same as the "SOURCE" command except that the document is uuencoded.

BINARY FILES

Agora servers are also able to retrieve binary files from web sites (that is, .gif. .jpg. .zip, .exe, etc). Binary files are uuencoded and subject to the same 5000 line limit. The other servers also have some kind of binary file retrievals methods but are also subject to limits. As before, please see the help files for each server type.

HELP DOCUMENT

All Agora servers will send the "HELP" document if you format your message like:

=======================================================================
To: agora@dna.affrc.go.jp OR agora@kamakura.mss.co.jp
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  HELP
=======================================================================

Getweb

GetWeb was developed by SatelLife, an international not-for-profit organization employing satellite, telephone and radio networking technology to serve the health communication and information needs of countries in the developing world.

To request a document from the World Wide Web, send a message to a getweb server with the body containing one or more requests like:

=======================================================================
To: getweb@usa.healthnet.org OR getweb@emailfetch.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  GET http://www.expita.com/servers.html
=======================================================================

Where url is the URL of the document you request. If the message contains more than one request, separate each request with a blank line like this:

=======================================================================
To: getweb@usa.healthnet.org OR getweb@emailfetch.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  GET http://www.expita.com/howto1.html

  GET http://www.expita.com/howto2.html

  GET http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
=======================================================================

If your mailer program insists puts extra, unwanted text at the beginning or end of your message, then you can enclose your commands in a begin/end block. You can also comment out lines with '#', so that in the following message only the 'GET http://www.expita.com/servers.html' line will be processed:

=======================================================================
To: getweb@usa.healthnet.org OR getweb@emailfetch.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  Hello getweb!
  This preamble will not be processed by the MailBot...

  begin

  GET http://www.expita.com/servers.html

  # ...neither will this comment

  end
  ....and neither will this signature:
  --
  Gerry Boyd -- gboyd@netcom.com
=======================================================================

HELP DOCUMENT

All Getweb servers will send the "HELP" document if you format your message like:

=======================================================================
To: getweb@usa.healthnet.org OR getweb@emailfetch.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  HELP
=======================================================================

www4mail

A web page (returned as text)
=======================================================================
To: www4mail@collaborium.org (OR other www4mail server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  SEND http://www.expita.com/servers.html
  SEND http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  SEND http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  SEND http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
=======================================================================

A web page (returned as is) as an attachment
=======================================================================
To: www4mail@collaborium.org (OR other www4mail server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  TSOURCE http://www.expita.com/servers.html
  TSOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  TSOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  TSOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
=======================================================================

A web page (returned as is) in body of message
=======================================================================
To: www4mail@collaborium.org (OR other www4mail server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  SOURCE http://www.expita.com/servers.html
  SOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  SOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  SOURCE http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
=======================================================================

A form retrieval
=======================================================================
To: www4mail@collaborium.org (OR other www4mail server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  XFORMREPLY = TEXT
  http://www.liszt.com/
=======================================================================

Others

=======================================================================
To: www@web2mail.com
Subject: URL of page (omit http://)
         URL of page with images (omit http://)
Body: [leave blank]
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: url@inquiremail.com
Subject: URL of page
Body: [leave blank]
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: page@grabpage.org
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  URL: http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  HTML: http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
       URL - web page returned in text format
       HTML - web page returned in HTML format
  also does https:// (Secure Socket Layer) web sites
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: webgate@vancouver-webpages.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  GET http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  DUMP http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
       GET - returns MIME web page
       DUMP - returns text web page
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: wwwmail@www.ucc.ie
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  GET http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  SEND http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
       GET - returns HTML code
       SEND - returns plain text
=======================================================================

webmail@www.ucc.ie limits you to 1.44Mb (one high-density floppy disk size) on all files retrieved. Files larger than this cannot be returned.

Unlimited web pages returned as text
=======================================================================
To: text@pagegetter.com
Subject: [single URL or leave blank for multiple retrievals]
Body:
  http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
  rsize=xxxx (file size spilt in bytes, good for PDAs)
  etc.
=======================================================================

Unlimited web pages returned as is, including graphics
=======================================================================
To: web@pagegetter.com
Subject: [single URL or leave blank for multiple retrievals]
Body:
  http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
  etc.
=======================================================================

Unlimited framed web pages returned as is, including graphics
=======================================================================
To: frames@pagegetter.com
Subject: [single URL or leave blank for multiple retrievals]
Body:
  http://www.expita.com/howto1.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto2.html
  http://www.expita.com/howto3.html
  etc.
=======================================================================

JAVASCRIPT WEB PAGES

For test results of retrieving a Javascript web page by using Agora, Getweb, w3mail, and web-mail see Javascript Test Results.

Results and Comments:
The three Getweb servers returned the most references because they properly indexed the whole web page. They also returned Agora-like results. However, in general, Getweb servers return more of the page than I like to see. Personally, I like the format returned by the Agora servers. In this case, only agora@dna.affrc.go.jp worked properly and to my satisfaction. agora@kamakura.mss.go.jp scrambled the Javascript and included it as well as returning the normal Agora-like results. agora@www.eng.dmu.ac.uk just returned the Javascript and no Agora-like results.

webmail@www.ucc.ie returned the source and the formatted version by using the "GO" command, neither of which I liked for this test. I normally do not retrieve web pages in source format as I have no interest in viewing after retrieval. I find that results returned by this server are best when using the "SEND" command and URLs are not wanted. This works fine for specific searches and for plain text files.

My preferences are toward the type of results returned when using a search engine via e-mail so my comments above reflect these feelings. See the results and determine which ones you like best for yourself.

References: