Dear Jan, George, and LSTOWN-L Folks,

 >Once upon a time,

You left out, "in a distant galaxy"

 >Once upon a time, I remember that there used to be
 >a server to which one could telnet and get the real
 >identity of someone using an email account.

You might be remembering 'FINGER.'  Most
implementations of FINGER in *private* (dot.com)
networks have been at the option of the user, to
allow privacy.

There was a day, before SPAM reared it ugly head,
when finger was *commonly* implemented at *.edu,
and many other sites.

Some implementations of FINGER look a little like
telnet (or DOS / UNIX command line), so, to me, it
is conceivable that you're remembering FINGER.

FINGER is a great tool if you just want to get the
information out, and don't care about security,
tracking, cookies, and making money. There was
a day when you could finger a soda cooler to be
sure there was cold pop, or finger an "earthquake"
server for the latest worldwide read-out. But, very
sadly, I don't think there are many FINGER sites
anymore.

If you have a FINGER client, you can use it to
find out what I said about myself in 1996 here:

finger [log in to unmask]

Today, IP address tracing is your best bet, as Don
has already mentioned.

  Pax,
Ballew Kinnaman <[log in to unmask]> 206/463-2322
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