Copyright: Copyright © 1996 Galacticomm, Inc.
Citation: Copyright © 1996 Galacticomm, Inc.  All rights reserved.


Account Display / Edit

This information is available only to the Sysop of this Worldgroup.  Payment information in particular may be assumed secure and confidential.  Other users will not have access to it.

"Your User-ID"

Account class

While most user information is handled on an individual basis, it makes for easier management if large numbers of similar users can be grouped into classes.  For example, you might be a CUSTOMER on a business Worldgroup, a MEMBER on an exclusive Worldgroup, or a USER on a public Worldgroup.  Other common classes include DEMO and APPLICATION, used by systems which do not immediately grant full access to first-time callers.  Systems which charge for access may place you into a class which reflects your method of payment (HOURLY, MONTHLY, etc.).

Time limit per call

The maximum number of minutes you may spend online on this system during a single session - the period of time between making contact with the Worldgroup server, and breaking contact.

This restriction is imposed by Worldgroups which have more callers than available channels as a way to let everyone have a chance to reach the system.  Of course, WGM gives you the equivalent of a speed-dial button... when the system logs you off, simply click the Connect button on WGM's status bar window (the one with the blinking TXD and RXD lights).

Time limit per day

The maximum number of minutes you may spend online on this system during a single day.  Again, this is done to give all users a fair chance at access.

Account created

The date you signed up under this User-ID on this Worldgroup.

Last logon

The date you were last logged onto this Worldgroup.

Credits

If this Worldgroup does not charge for its services, this field may not appear at all.  If it does appear, any number you see here is irrelevant to you.

If this Worldgroup does charge for its services, however, this is the balance in your account.

A positive number indicates that you have prepaid (or have earned credits through uploads, filling out polls, etc.).  As you spend time online, your credit balance will decrease towards zero.  When it reaches zero, you will most likely have to prepay again before logging back on.

A negative number indicates that you are permitted to go into debt (a rare privilege).  As you spend time online, your credit balance will grow in the negative direction.  Payments will reduce the debt positively toward zero.  There is likely a debt limit set in the system.  When you reach it, you will not be able to log on again until you reduce the debt considerably away from the limit.

Account Information

Name

Your real, full name.

Company

The name of the company you work for, if relevant to your presence on this Worldgroup.

Address

An appropriate mailing address.  If this is for a business Worldgroup which may ship items to you, be sure this address is one which can accept package deliveries from carriers other than the government mail service - that is, not a Post Office Box.

Country

Defaults to USA if not otherwise specified.  This can be used for more detailed routing information if necessary (Saba, Netherlands Antilles).

Phone

An appropriate voice telephone number at which you can be reached.  For business purposes, preferably a daytime number.  For social Worldgroups, often an evening number is better.

Birthdate

The birthdate you entered when you signed up on this Worldgroup.

Sex

Your gender.

Computer

The type of computer you use to contact this Worldgroup.

Log on as another User-ID

This button lets you end this session and log back onto the same Worldgroup server using another User-ID.  This is handy, for example, when you have an account with your own name as User-ID for personal use yet also maintain a departmental User-ID like Sales, Docs, Customer Service, etc.

Transfer Credits

Meaningful only on systems which charge for services, and only useful if your credit balance is positive.  You can transfer part of your balance to another User-ID, either as a payment to another person or as an internal transfer from one of your accounts to another.

Password

You can, and should periodically, change the password associated with this user account.

Advanced

Sets preferences for accessing this Worldgroup in terminal mode, if appropriate.


A Worldgroup Day

A day for a Worldgroup is measured from Auto-cleanup shutdown to Auto-cleanup shutdown, an event which usually occurs at 3 am (the time can be changed by the Sysop).

Immediately ahead of an Auto-cleanup shutdown, the server asks (if necessary forces) users to log off.  During a shutdown, the server does not accept calls.  After a few minutes of bookkeeping and housekeeping, the server comes back online and begins a new day.


Transfer Credits

You can transfer part of one user account's credit balance to another user account.

To reach this window, from the Account Display/Edit window click Transfer Credits.

Transfers are meaningful only on systems which charge for services, and then only if the sending credit balance is positive.

A transfer from the currently online User-ID to another User-ID can be a payment to another person.  Alternatively, it can be an internal transfer to another of your own accounts.  For example, if the balance in one of your accounts has fallen to its debt limit but you still have a positive balance in another, you can give credit where credit is due and even the two out.

Credits available

Displays the current balance of credits in the user account through which you are currently logged onto the Worldgroup server.

Transfer To

This is waiting for a User-ID.   If you know the precise spelling of the User-ID to which you wish to transfer credits, type it in manually.  If not, click Find.

How many

The dropdown list offers several popular amounts of credits.  As installed, Worldgroup charges one credit for one second of time online, so 1800 credits means half an hour.  Of course, the Sysop running this board may have changed the proportion.  You are also welcome to type in any other amount up to your current balance.

Realize that transferring the entire current balance is likely to cause the server to immediately log you off because you suddenly have a zero balance.

Once you've selected a recipient User-ID and an amount, click OK.


Change Password

You can, and periodically should, change your password.

To reach this window, from the Account Display/Edit window click Password.

Current password

In order to confirm that you are who you say you are, the system requires that you correctly enter the password which is currently associated with this User-ID.  You did supply the correct password when you logged on, but this second check guards against someone walking up to your PC while you're absent and changing your password.

For similar reasons, the characters which you type will be obscured with ******* so that other persons within view of your screen cannot easily see what you type.

New password

Type the new password you wish to use.  As with the previous field, the characters which you type here will be obscured with ******* so that other persons within view of your screen cannot easily see what you type.

Write down this new password immediately and keep the paper in a secure location.

When you click OK, the change will be recorded both in the Worldgroup server's Accounting area and in the client-side WGM Properties area for the Online Service Item (icon) you use to contact this system.  From now on, when you double-click that icon, WGM will deliver the new password to the server immediately after sending the User-ID.


Terminal Mode Settings

This is where you set preferences for terminal-mode sessions with this Worldgroup.  Even if this is a Worldgroup server, a few of its services may not be client/server applications, Doors in particular.  Doors are DOS programs running online for your use.  Because they are not written specifically for Worldgroup, Doors do not know how to service WGM requests in C/S mode.  WGM must drop back to terminal mode in order to give you access to them.

ANSI Preference

ANSI graphics are the most common form of terminal-mode display.  ANSI uses text characters and colors to lay out graphics on a PC's 80 column by 24 line text screen.

WGM supports ANSI graphics while in terminal mode.  If you are certain this system delivers ANSI graphics, select ANSI ON.  If you are certain that you do not want to receive ANSI graphics, select ANSI OFF.  If you prefer to let the system decide, select AUTO.

Screen Size

The default is for 24 lines of 80 characters each, the PC text screen standard.  Unless this system specifically suggests some other proportion, changing these settings will likely result in jumbled displays.

Pause Output

Terminal mode delivers information to your display as a stream of lines of text.  As a new line arrives, it appears at the bottom of the display and scrolls existing lines up a notch.  The top line is pushed up out of sight.

Terminal-mode menus are designed with a 24-line screen in mind and do not as a rule scroll useful information out of sight before you can act on it.  However, the behavior of text files, Email messages, and so forth cannot be anticipated.

Pause

This prevents information scrolling off the screen before you can read it.  As the 22nd line arrives, this inserts the comment (N)onstop, (Q)uit, (C)ontinue and waits for you to press a key.

Continuous

This permits information to scroll off the screen whether you have time to read it or not.  The display pauses only when a menu or other entry point asks you for input.

Default Editor

While composing messages online in terminal mode, you have a choice of a full-screen editor (FSE) or a Line editor.

Line

Lets you edit/compose a message one line at a time.  It's similar in feel to the EDLIN program from older versions of DOS.

FSE

Lets you edit/compose a message in full-screen mode.  It's similar in feel to the EDIT program in more recent versions of DOS.

Language Preferences

Languages in Worldgroup come paired with display types.  For example, English/ANSI means the words displayed on screen will be in English and the method for displaying them will be ANSI graphics.  German/RIP means the words displayed on screen will be auf Deutsch and the method for displaying them will be RIP graphics.

WGM cannot display RIP graphics, so do not select any language which is /RIP.

Permanent

This dropdown list displays the available language choices on this Worldgroup, and will make the one you choose the default for future logons.

This session only

This dropdown list displays the available language choices on this Worldgroup, and will make the one you choose the one in use only until you next disconnect.  On your next logon, you'll be back to the language choice set in Permanent.


Find...

This function helps you find the correct spelling of a person's User-ID.

Although people commonly use their full names as User-IDs, you need to remember that a User-ID is a single string.  That is, the User-ID "Carolyn G." will appear before the User-ID "Kelly B." because the letter C comes before the letter K.

Type your best guess in the User: field

As with almost everything in Worldgroup, UPPER/lower case doesn't matter:  "Tyler" equals "TYLER" equals "tyler".

Click on the Search button

If the function finds any matches, the window will enlarge to display a list of possible matches.  Select the one you wish either by double-clicking it, or by single-clicking it then clicking the OK button.  The selected User-ID will be returned to the window from which you called Find...

If the function does not find a match, try a shorter string in the User: field.  Although you can type in a full name, it's generally better not to.  If you ask for "reginald" but he signed up as "Reggie", the search won't find him.  You're better off searching for "reg".

Notice that you can search for a person by last name, or even partial last name.  It will not find "Ann Owen" if you type in "we", however.  The search string in User: must be the beginning of a word if not a whole word.


Glossary

The following definitions are available:

Bitmap File

C/S (Client/Server) Mode

Client Side

Dumb Terminal

File Transfer Protocol

Metafile

Online, Offline, On Deck

Password

Worldgroup server

Server Side

Sysop

Terminal Mode

User Account

User-ID


Bitmap File

A bitmap is a way to store a graphical image as a rectangular grid of dots (pixels).

For example, this is a bitmap graphic:

	Here it is again 4 times as large.  Bitmaps don't enlarge very well because the information that is stored within them is only accurate down to the size of a single pixel (dot).  Enlarge a bitmap and you get big dots.

On the other hand, bitmaps work very well when they store information which is not meant to be enlarged, reshaped or otherwise manipulated.  Windows icons are bitmaps (stored as .ico files or embedded in .exe files).  Windows wallpaper designs are bitmaps (.bmp).

The Windows program Paintbrush can manipulate .bmp files.

See also Metafile.


C/S (Client/Server) Mode

Two-sided computing: your PC and the Worldgroup server PC both work to satisfy your requests.  Your PC's processing power is not ignored (as with a terminal mode BBS).  In fact, your PC ends up doing most of the work.  C/S mode minimizes wasted time online by letting you do many tasks on deck.

Client/server means that one program (the client) can ask another program (the server) for assistance.  The two programs often run on separate computers connected by a communications link (a network, the telephone system, etc.).

WGM is a client program running on your PC.

The Worldgroup server is a server program running on a remote PC.


Client side

Your PC running WGM is the client side of a client/server relationship.  The remote PC running Worldgroup server software is the server side of the relationship.  The term client side includes:

1) any programs which run on your PC

2) any data, documents, or other files which are stored on your PC

The client side can do many tasks itself, and calls on the server side for tasks it cannot do (exchanging messages with other clients, looking up centralized information, etc.).


Dumb Terminal

A device which has a keyboard, a monitor, possibly a mouse, but has no ability to process data by itself.  A dumb terminal has to be connected to a computer in order to do anything.

Old-style user-side modem programs are known as terminal programs because they make your PC mimic a dumb terminal (thereby wasting your PC's processing power).


File Transfer Protocol

A language for exchanging files between two computers and confirming that what arrives is the same as what was sent.  Common protocols for terminal-mode transfers include ZMODEM, XMODEM, YMODEM-Batch, and Kermit.

WGM in C/S mode uses its own information transfer protocol, GCSP, which uses Dynapaks to exchange all forms of data including files.


Metafile

A metafile is a way to store a graphical image as a collection of shapes, angles, and relative distances.

For example, this drawing is a metafile:

	Here it is again 8 times as large.  Note that its curved edges are far smoother than would be a bitmap of the same size.  Stretched large or small, a metafile is recalculated to provide the most accurate image possible.

Because PC monitors in use today may be set to any of a dozen different resolutions (so many pixels tall, so many pixels wide), we have used metafiles within WGM's help files wherever possible.  This makes it more likely that graphics will appear properly on your display.

The Windows program Paintbrush cannot manipulate .wmf files.

See also Bitmap File.


Online, Offline, and On Deck
Online

Connected.

Your PC is online whenever it is connected to a Worldgroup server.

Offline

Disconnected.

Your PC is offline whenever it is not connected to a Worldgroup server.

On Deck

Disconnected but able to perform tasks.

Your PC is on deck whenever WGM is running the client-side program for a Worldgroup service but your PC is not yet connected to the online service.


Password

The private half of your identification, seen only by the Worldgroup server software and the Sysop.

A password is the confirmation that you are who your User-ID says you are.  Without passwords, someone else could log on using your User-ID and do things that you would be blamed for.  Keep your password secret.

Avoid obvious, easily guessed, passwords.  Make up something that is not your mother's maiden name, not your job title, in fact not anything related to your work.

Don't use a completely random string of characters, though.  "NE1410S" will be hard to remember.  Instead, an effective middle choice is to run two words together which are easily remembered by you but not easily guessed by others.  "Twosun" for example.


Worldgroup Server

Any online service running Worldgroup server software by Galacticomm, Inc.

Online services running other software are not servers in the client/server sense.  WGM drops back to terminal mode in order to communicate with them.


Server side

The remote PC running Worldgroup is the server side of a client/server relationship.  Your PC is the client side of the relationship.  The term server side includes:

1) any programs which run on the Worldgroup server PC

2) any data, documents, or other files which are stored on the Worldgroup server PC

The server side exists solely to do tasks which the client side cannot do itself (exchanging messages with other clients, looking up centralized information, etc.).


Sysop

A System Operator, or Sysop, is the manager of a Worldgroup system.


Terminal Mode

One-sided computing: the software running on the remote computer insists on doing all of the work, so the user's PC might as well be a dumb terminal.  This mindset made sense when computing power was prohibitively expensive.  Today, though, your PC may well be more powerful than the PC running the online service you call.  Even if it isn't, your PC is closer to you than the service's PC.  It can do things without delay, if the software at both ends permits.  Client/server mode permits this.  Terminal mode does not.

WGM falls back from C/S mode to terminal mode in order to communicate with non-Worldgroup online services.


User Account

A list of information including your full name, your mailing address, your telephone number, etc.  In a for-profit online service, the user account may include your credit card number or other method of payment.

User account information is private, seen only by you and by the Sysop.

Your user account is identified by your User-ID and password.


User-ID

The public half of your identification, seen by the software and by other users.

A User-ID is a string of 3 to 29 characters.  On business systems, it is often your full name.  On social systems, it is often a nickname or "handle."  In some situations, a User-ID may be assigned to you, but in most cases you have creative control.

Your User-ID is verified by the password you associate with it.


I never metafile I didn't like

      (Stryker said I could do it! --Marc)