A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/guides/help/faq.hlb

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 8.7 KB | 208 lines

    Welcome to the Exec-PC Internet Gateway FAQ!  (The what?)  Oh,
perhaps I should explain...  FAQ is a common term used on the
Internet, and is short for "Frequently Asked Questions".  FAQs are
available on all sorts of topics, and generally provide answers to
questions that the manual or other sources just didn't cover well
enough.  This document is intended to answer some of more common
questions we receive about this service.  If you have a question that
you think may be of general interest, feel free to send mail to
"help", and perhaps we can add it to the FAQ.

Contents
--------
Q1.0 - General Questions
 Q1.1 - What is my Email address?
 Q1.2 - Can I store files on this system?
 Q1.3 - How can I change my name on the system?
 Q1.4 - What software should I use to call this system?
Q2.0 - Mail
 Q2.1 - What is my Email address?
 Q2.2 - How do I attach files to Email?
 Q2.3 - Where is my incoming mail stored?
 Q2.4 - How can I print my mail?
 Q2.5 - How do I get off a mailing list?
Q3.0 - News
 Q3.1 - Where are the Clari.news groups?
 Q3.2 - Where is the (whatever) news group?
 Q3.3 - What happened to the articles I saved?
Q4.0 - FTP
 Q4.1 - Why are all the non-text files I FTP corrupted?
Q5.0 - Gopher, Lynx, and IRC
 Q5.1 - How do I change my name in IRC?



Q1.0 - General Questions

Q1.1 - What is my Email address?

Your Email address is:  [e-mail], where "login" is what
you enter when you first connect to the system.  For instance, the guy
who wrote this FAQ (bibach) has an email address of:
    [e-mail]
Note that you do NOT enter this entire address when you login to the
system.  You only enter your login and password.

Q1.2 - Can I store files on this system?

Yes!  Each user on this system is allowed to store up to 2 Megabytes
(4Megabytes for Unlimited users).  This space is used to store
configuration files for the various tools on this system, files you
save articles and messages to in the newsgroup and mail areas, as well
as files you FTP from other sites on the Internet.
The configuration files often, but not always, start with a period,
which makes them somewhat hidden.
When you retreive a file via FTP, it is stored on the disk on our
system.  You then need to download the file to your computer.  Once
you have done this, and are sure you received the file okay, you can
delete it.  This can be done several ways.  First, the download option
on the menu automatically asks you if you want to delete the file
after the download completes.  If you answer yes, the file will be
remove for you.  Otherwise, you can use the "R" option on the "M"odify
menu, right off the main menu.

Q1.3 - How can I change my name on the system?

You have two different "names" on this system.  The first is your
login name, which you enter when you first connect.  The second is
your "real" name, which often shows up when you send mail to someone,
among other places.  Your login name cannot be changed.  If you MUST
change it, we can delete your account and you can create a new account
with a different name, but this is discouraged.  Your "real" name can
be changed somewhat more easily.  This would be useful, for instance,
if a family member starts using an account that was previously in the
name of someone else.  We ask that you not change your "real" name, if
possible, but if you need a new name put on the account, mail your
request to "help", and we'll get it changed.



Q2.0 - Mail

Q2.1 - What is my Email address?

See Question 1.1, above, for the answer to this question.

Q2.2 - How do I attach files to Email?

One of the more useful functions of Internet Email is the ability to
send a file to anyone who has an Email account.  Unfortunately,
Internet Email was designed to be "text-only".  This means that many
files, including programs and data files of many types, are unsuitable
for direct attachment to an Email message.  Fortunately, there is a
tool, called UUEncode, which can covert this type of file into
something more appropriate for Internet Email.
To include a file with your Email message, first upload the file to
our system using the normal upload procedures.  Then, run the UUEncode
program on the file, like this:
    uuencode myfile.exe yourfile.exe >myfile.uue
In this case, "myfile.exe" is the name of the file I uploaded, and
"yourfile.exe" is what the file should be called when it gets decoded
on the other end.  Usually, these two names will be the same.  The
encoded file will be placed in a file called "myfile.uue" (or whatever
you enter there).  Be SURE to include the ">" symbol.
Now, go ahead and start sending a message to the person who is to
receive the file.  Once you are in the editor, tell the editor to read
in your encoded file.  If you are using Pine (and the Pico editor),
the command to do this is Control-R.  If you are using Emacs, the
command is Control-x i.  In either case, give the editor the name of
the file that contains the encoded version of your file.  In our
example, this was "myfile.uue".  Now, go ahead and send the message.
When the receiver gets your message, they will save the message to a
file, edit that file to remove anything before the line that says
"begin", then run the command:
    uudecode myfile.uue
where "myfile.uue" is the file they saved the message to.  UUDecode
will automatically rebuild the original file, saving it under the name
you gave UUEncode when you encoded the file.

Q2.3 - Where is my incoming mail stored?

Every user on the system has a file with the same name as their login.
These files are stored in the /var/mail directory.  Usually, you will
not need to worry about this file, as the mail reader take care of it
for you.

Q2.4 - How can I print my mail?

You may be able to print your mail using a process called "Remote
Printing".  This is a procedure where the remote system (this system)
prints to a printer that is attached to the local system (your
computer).  This is accomplished via a feature of the VT100 terminal.
If you aren't using a VT100 terminal emulation in your communications
software, you should be!  However, even if you are using a VT100
emulation, not all communications software packages provide a good
emulation of a VT100.  Your best bet is to setup the printing feature,
as described below, and try it out by printing a short message.

If you are using Pine, from the main menu, press "S" for Setup, "P"
for Printer, then "1".  This should set up Pine to print on your local
printer.
If you are using Elm, from the message list screen, press "O" for
Options, then "P" for Print.  You will then need to enter the
following line, exactly as it appears here:
    vtprint -e -q %s
After entering this line (and pressing <enter>), press ">" to save
your change, then press "i" to return to the message list.

Now, you should be all set.  Go ahead and try printing some messages.
If it doesn't go to your printer, you may have a less-than-perfect
VT100 emulation.  If this is the case, you may want to look into a
different communications package for calling the Internet system.

Q2.5 - How do I get off a mailing list?

To get yourself off a mailing list, simply send a mail message to
"[e-mail]", where some.site.com is the system on which
the list resides.  You can leave the subject blank.  The body of the
message should contain the line:
    unsubscribe list-name
where list-name is the name of the list you want to get off of.



Q3.0 - News

Q3.1 - Where are the Clari.net groups?

The Clarinet news groups are a premium service.  We are still
negotiating for a possible link to the Clarinet groups.  We may or
may not provide access to them in the future.

Q3.2 - Where is the (whatever) news group?

If you know of a newsgroup that you would like to receive, but can't
seem to find on our system, feel free to leave mail to "help", and we
will add the group to our list, if possible.

Q3.3 - What happened to the articles I saved?

When you tell your news reader to save an article to a file, that file
gets placed in the "News" subdirectory of your home directory.  Thus,
if you want to download it, you must specify "News/" before the
filename when you type it in.



Q4.0 - FTP

Q4.1 - Why are all the non-text files I FTP corrupted?

When you receive a non-text file via FTP, the FTP protocol needs to
transfer the file with a special "binary" protocol.  Usually, the FTP
program take care of this automatically.  However, occasionally, a
file that you transfer will get corrupted because it wasn't transfered
in binary mode.  If you want to be sure all the files you transfer are
transfered in binary mode, type "bin" at the ftp> prompt before you
start transfering any files.



Q5.0 - Gopher, Lynx, and IRC

Q5.1 - How do I change my name in IRC?

To change what IRC displays as your "real name", from the command
line, type: setenv IRCNAME My Name
where "My Name" is the name you want displayed.