Online Help

# How to access GetWeb

Please note access to this server is logged; we cannot guarantee that your requests will remain private.

To request a document from the World Wide Web, send a message to getweb@usa.healthnet.org with the body containing one or more requests like:

GET url

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.

Here is a message which would fetch the HealthNet home page:

`GET http://www.healthnet.org`

After receiving the above message, the GetWeb server would format the HealthNet home page as human-readable plain-text and send it to you.

A hotlist of URLs which we consider especially interesting is available.

Each hypertext link is represented by a number in brackets. Suppose you get a message like this from a GetWeb server:

    Some important conferences carried by SatelLife include:

         * ProMED: Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases[1]
         * ProCAARE: Program for Collaboration Against AIDS[2]
         * E-Drug: Essential Drugs[3]

    ** References from this document **
    [1] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/promed.html
    [2] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.html
    [3] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html

To get more information about ProCAARE, you would look up link 2 at the bottom of the message to find out the URL is http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.html. You would then send a message to the GetWeb server:

`GET http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.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.healthnet.org' line will be processed:

    Hello getweb@usa.healthnet.org!
    This preamble will not be processed by the MailBot...

    begin

    GET http://www.healthnet.org

    # ...neither will this comment

    end
    ...and neither will this signature:
    --
    B. Russell, ontological consultant, phone: (617) 555-1652
    "The worse the logic, the more interesting the conclusions"

Follow the links below for more help.

How can I:

- fill out HTML Forms?
- search the Web?
- break a long command between multiple lines?
- follow chains of linked documents with a single command?
- request raw HTML source rather than formatted text?
- configure how documents are delivered?
- use Agora (w3mail) commands?
- send username and password to the Web server?
- decode binary files?

How quotas limit server load

Accessing American Physiological Society abstracts

Accessing ProMED archives

Other GetWeb-type servers

About the GetWeb MailBot server software

Also see the GetWeb home page.

Send bugs or suggestions for improvement to getweb-admin@usa.healthnet.org.