The Wide Area Information Server protocol (WAIS) is a Document Publishing protocol, which although primarily intended for disseminating full-text documents, also allows dissemination of other file types. It is similar to the proprietary Prospero protocol, but unlike Prospero, a delivery mechanism is not integrated (it only provides pointers, which allows it to be used in combination with other protocols such as Gopher). Originally conceived as a way for libraries having Z39.50 systems to facilitate research of their electronic documents, WAIS was designed to use low bandwidth, and is suitable for use through a 56Kbps modem. WAIS servers offer specially constructed "Source" files (*.src), which are abstracts of documents that the server wishes to make available. Server access requires using a WAIS client, or the rare Browser that understands the URI "wais://". The client can search these Source files using plain language text-based queries, then retrieve the actual document following the search. Normally a server will publish the existence of their document database Source file to a "Directory of Servers", however the client can also access a Source file directly if the address (wais://<server>/<src_path>) is already known. Below are addresses to various free public access WAIS servers.
[IANA Port assignment = 210]

WAIS Sources