E-mail freebies - useful business information and software available on the Internet

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1994 by Rosalind Resnick

Remember how much fun you had as a kid sending away for those free offers on the backs of cereal boxes? And how it seemed to take forever for that two-way wristwatch or secret decoder ring to arrive in the mail? Well, the good news is that, even though you're now a grown-up running your own business, there's still plenty of free stuff to send away for - and it's as close as your computer.

Thanks to the Internet and its thousands of automated mail-retrieval programs, you can have access to all kinds of free software, electronic books, newsletters, stock quotes, financial filings, and other informational documents simply by zapping someone an e-mail message. Where necessary, we have included any specific wording that must be included in the messages you send. Here's a sampling of useful business freebies - no box tops required.

1. Market quotes. Tired of paying big bucks to commercial services for online stock quotes? Now you can get up to five daily stock, mutual fund, money market, and commodities quotes for free through an Internet service called QuoteCom. To find out more, send an e-mail message to info@quote.com.

2. Company finances. The SEC offers free financial information about publicly traded companies through its EDGAR database on the Internet. To get the same information on CompuServe, you'd pay $11 per report. Send an e-mail message to mail@town.hall.org and type the words search EDGAR (company name) (name of filing) in the body of the message. For example, search EDGAR Sun Microsystems 10Q.

3. Database directory. Internet Sources of Government Information, a comprehensive list of Internet databases, can be obtained by sending an e-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. The text should read as follows: send usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers/part 1 and send usenet/news.answers/us-govt-net-pointers/part2.

4. Catalog shopping. Get the Internet Mall, an electronic listing of books, software, toys, concert tickets, and other products available through the Internet, by sending e-mail to taylor@netcom.com. The body of the message you send should contain the words send mall

5. Market conditions. The Financial Economics Network (FEN), an Internet discussion group that lets subscribers swap information about banking, accounting, stocks, bonds, options, small business, corporate finance, and emerging markets, delivers a daily report to its members that provides a market summary of 29 indices and averages. The free report includes the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard k Poor's 500 stock index, a list of the most actively traded ed stocks, and changes in foreign currency prices. Join FEN by sending e-mail to editor Wayne Marr (marrm@clemson.clemson.edu) or John Trimble (trimble@vancouver.wsu.edu).

6. A consultant's opinion. If you're worried about your company's future, consult the Usenet Oracle - the Internet's equivalent to the Magic Eight Ball. Send in your question and the Oracle - actually, another Internet user - will respond with words of wisdom. It's cheaper than hiring a consulting firm, and some Net veterans swear by it. For more information, send e-mail to oracle@cs.indiana.edu with a subject line of help.

7. Patents pending. The Internet Patent News Service is a free listing of all U.S. patents issued during the previous week. To sign up or find out more information, send e-mail to patents@world.std.com.

8. Internet phone book. Want to send an e-mail message to a colleague on the AT&T Mail, Bitnet, or BIX network but don't know the proper Internet addressing format? Get a copy of Scott Yanoff's Internetwork Mail Guide (commonly known as the Yanoff List) by sending e-mail to inetlist@aug3.augsburg.edu.

9. News clips. Your local library isn't the only source of information. The Stanford Netnews Filtering Service searches for Internet newsgroup (bulletin board) postings tailored to your specifications and delivers them free via e-mail. To sign up for the service, send e-mail to netnews@db.stanford.edu. Type help in the body of the message.

10. Bookstore catalog. Softpro Books, a computer bookstore with shops in Boston and Denver, offers an online catalog containing more than 1,000 titles. To get your free copy, send e-mail to softpro@world. std.com.

11. Internet access info. Internet onramps are available through many service providers. Check out the Public Dialup Internet Access List to find them. The PDIAL list, as it's commonly known, records public Internet access providers as well as which ones offer the ability to use Internet tools and features such as file transfer protocol (ftp), telnet, Gopher, and others. For a copy, send e-mail to info-deli-server@netcom. com. The message should contain the words, send PDIAL.

12. List of lists. The best way to find an e-mail discussion group is to get a copy of the "list of lists," a comprehensive register of more than 800 Internet mailing lists and their sign-up instructions compiled by SRI International in Menlo Park, California. Send e-mail to mail-server@sri.com. In the body of the message, type send netinfo/interest-groups.