Please link to this page -- http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/ -- and not to the
gateway script, so that people can benefit from the information below. If you're
looking for Floodgap's web pages, they're on [1]www.floodgap.com.

   If you are, or you represent, an evil bot that likes to slurp down helpless
   addresses for the purpose of evil things like unrequested missives (note how
   carefully I'm avoiding the S-word or the U-word to defeat blunt grepping), please
   [2]loop endlessly in this cage. Otherwise, welcome to the ...

[3]Floodgap Public Gopher Proxy

   Gopher is a well-known information access protocol that predates the World Wide
   Web, developed at the University of Minnesota during the early 1990s. [4]What is
   Gopher? (Gopher-hosted, via the Public Proxy)

   This proxy is for Gopher resources only -- using it to access websites won't work
   and is logged!

   As the Gopher protocol enters its second decade of existence, its support among
   many major browsers has declined or has been expunged entirely (Microsoft
   Internet Explorer), if the browser even ever supported it at all (Opera and
   Safari never have).

   To allow Gopherspace to continue to be usefully accessible in the coming years,
   since it's still definitely a [5]viable and useful (not to mention lightweight
   and efficient) information distribution protocol, the Public Proxy offers a
   standards-based, effective GopherHTTP gateway to facilitate access even when
   your web browser doesn't.
     ____________________________________________________________________________

   Who does need this proxy?: Support for Gopher does not exist in Microsoft
   Internet Explorer 7 and later, Microsoft Edge (all versions), Google Chrome (all
   versions), Apple Safari (all versions), Mozilla versions 2.0 and later and all
   derivatives (including Firefox 57+ (install [6]OverbiteWX), Firefox 4 through 56,
   TenFourFox 4+ and SeaMonkey 2.1+ (install [7]OverbiteFF)), Opera (all versions),
   Vivaldi (all versions), Brave (all versions), iCab (all versions), or Netscape 5
   (inclusive) to before v6.2.3. Support for Gopher is broken in Microsoft Internet
   Explorer 4, 5 and 6 (a registry hack is required to enable Gopher in IE 6);
   Mozilla versions before 1.8 and all derivatives (including Netscape 6.2.3-7.x,
   Firefox 0.x-1.0.x, Camino < 1.0 and any Chimera); NCSA Mosaic (all versions --
   try [8]Mosaic-CK); Konqueror (all versions); OmniWeb (prior to 5.9.2); Arachne
   (all versions). See [9]this document (Gopher-hosted, via the Public Proxy).
   Submit your testing to [10]ckaiser@floodgap.com.

   Are you accessing this site with Firefox 57+? [11]Download OverbiteWX to restore
   Gopher support in-browser!

   Who doesn't need this proxy?: You do NOT need this proxy if you are using [12]any
   version of Lynx, Firefox 1.5 through 3.6 (or TenFourFox with [13]OverbiteFF or
   Firefox 57+ with [14]OverbiteWX), any derivative of Mozilla 1.8 through 1.9.2
   (including Camino, [15]SeaMonkey 1.1 and 2.0.x, and Netscape 9, or any SeaMonkey
   with [16]OverbiteFF), [17]Classilla 9.0 or higher, [18]OmniWeb 5.9.2 or higher,
   Netscape 4.8 or lower, the original webTV Internet Explorer, Microsoft Internet
   Explorer 3.x or lower, or [19]HyperLink 2.5a or higher. See [20]this document
   (Gopher-hosted). Submit your testing to [21]ckaiser@floodgap.com.

   If you use one of these browsers, please [22]browse the Floodgap.com gopher
   directly. Note that some browsers are limited to port 70. This proxy allows
   access on other non-malicious port numbers, so you may still need this proxy for
   gopher servers hosted on unusual ports.

   What does this proxy support? What does this proxy not support?: Supported
   features include most standard Gopher-internal types and representations, indexed
   search server support, caps properties, and both light and full proxy views.
   Currently unsupported features include Gopher+ and CSO. Also, this proxy does not
   allow HTTP requests and will remap them into 302 redirects. You should not
   consider this proxy to be anonymous, as it is not designed to be a complete
   filter, you may be directly connected to a remote host at any time, and server
   logs and aggregated statistics may be used to look at Gopherspace usage trends.
   Also, to reduce abuse of Floodgap's seriously overloaded uplink, the connection
   is rate limited and may be slowed if the server is busy. Run a local client if
   you can.

   [23]Your usage is governed by Floodgap Terms of Service. Don't use this service
   unless you agree to be bound by its regulations.

General Information on Gopher

   Where can I find a specific Gopher client for my platform?: [24]The Overbite
   Project develops plugins and standalone clients for many mobile and desktop
   operating systems and environments. There are also many clients available for
   legacy systems which additionally support niches such as Gopher+. Here is a
   selection of [25]clients for multiple major platforms, including source where
   available, including Macintosh, various Unix and Unices, and Microsoft Windows
   (Gopher-hosted, via the Public Proxy).

   Where do gopher wranglers hang out? Where can I find out how to put up my own
   server?: Usenet comp.infosystems.gopher occasionally has discussions relevant to
   gopherspace. Many Gopher wranglers and gophermasters (depending on your
   preference) also read a mailing list maintained at other.debian.org
   ([26]subscription information, Gopher-hosted, via the Public Proxy).

   What standards govern Gopher?: Gopher is based on RFC 1436; a related protocol
   set called Gopher+ proposes various extensions to it that is also supported by
   many specialized Gopher clients (not this one). Here is a [27]collection of
   specifications (Gopher-hosted, via the Public Proxy).

   Why do only some gopher sites display the path breadcrumb menu?: The Proxy
   supports "caps," short for capability lists, a file you can place on a gopher
   server to tell a client about what specific capabilities it has and how to
   understand its filesystem. Not every gopher server has this file installed;
   because many older gopher servers may use alien non-POSIX paths, the Proxy makes
   no assumptions without it. If you want to add this support to your server, simply
   copy [28]Floodgap's caps.txt file, modify it to taste, and place it in your
   gopher root mount such that the selector caps.txt will fetch it. It may take up
   to a half hour for this to be noticed, as the Proxy intentionally caches failure
   to avoid hitting sites too hard.

Proxy Access

   Connect to the Public Proxy here.

     * [29]Standard Version (includes full JavaScript interface)
     * [30]"Lite" Version (lightweight client)

Starting Points (via Proxy)

     * [31]Floodgap Home Gopher
     * [32]Veronica-2 search engine
     * [33]Gopher site directory
     * [34]Master Gopher @ UMN (epitaph)

Direct Gopher links (not via Proxy)

     * [35]Floodgap Home Gopher
     * [36]Veronica-2 search service
     ____________________________________________________________________________


    [37]Cameron Kaiser

References

   1. http://www.floodgap.com/
   2. http://www.floodgap.com/encircle/
   3. http://www.floodgap.com/
   4. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/0/gopher/welcome
   5. http://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/relevance.html
   6. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbitewx/
   7. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbiteff/
   8. http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/machten/mosaic/
   9. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/0/gopher/wbgopher
  10. mailto:ckaiser@floodgap.com
  11. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbitewx/
  12. http://lynx.browser.org/
  13. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbiteff/
  14. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbitewx/
  15. https://www.seamonkey-project.org/
  16. http://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/
  17. http://www.classilla.org/
  18. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/
  19. http://www.armory.com/~spectre/cwi/hl/
  20. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/gopher/wbgopher
  21. mailto:ckaiser@floodgap.com
  22. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/
  23. http://www.floodgap.com/etc/tos.html
  24. http://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/
  25. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/clients
  26. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://gopher.quux.org/0/Software/Gopher/Mailing%20List.txt
  27. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/tech
  28. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/caps.txt
  29. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw
  30. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw.lite
  31. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw
  32. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/1/v2
  33. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/1/world
  34. http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher.floodgap.com/0/umngone
  35. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/
  36. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/v2
  37. mailto:ckaiser@floodgap.com