In this article, we discuss several services, provided to us in subscription form, by a computer, that speaks UNIX.
We have something to say about telnet, email, mailing lists, the web, usenet, gopher, and ftp.
After using telnet to establish computer contact, the rest of those programs communicate off-line. ON-LINE communications (in real time) use talk, irc, or muds.
First, we use the telephone, to CONNECT with our Internet provider, in order to show the UNIX prompt, “$”, on the screen.
TELNET
Telnet is a facility, so fundamental and so old in the history of accessing computers, as to answer the phone whenever we make our initial call to the Internet service. Then, of course, Telnet serves to CONNECT us to whatever other computers on the Internet, that we desire to talk to.
Boy, this must really kill the guys at the telephone company, as they try to get a piece of each such action! Here is how it goes for me. I call 520-806-4700, which responds with “azstarnet” and a request for a user name. After that, it asks for my password. Lastly, it asks for the computer I want to work on, since Arizona Starnet has a lot of computers. After “connect” appears, the banner/main menu is displayed.
Should I type “telnet user-name@computer-name”, then a brief pause ensues, based upon Internet traffic, followed by a response with site-name and a request for a user name. After that, it asks for my password. Lastly, … , as above. From the foregoing, you should see, that using Telnet is like calling a BBS, e.g., SOL BBS at 520 882 0388 with “guest” as a user name and “guest” as a password.
By a careful reading of the above, you should also see, that each TELNET site differs in log-on procedure, as much as it differs in general content. This includes the initial call to your Internet service!
Anyway, by going through the above steps, you have gained access to the Internet and/or access to whatever other site on the Internet, you might have addressed.
E-MAIL (Electronic Mail)
We use program MAIL, in order to SEND mail over the Internet, using the 2068 computer and a shell account, in order to access the web. I don’t know all the details, but MaxCom software does not seem to entirely emulate the VT100 terminal, because we cannot go UP on the screen and, hence, we are limited to line editors.
Shell accounts usually use “PINE” and “PICO” to send mail but, alas, they use full-screen editors. But, they replaced “mail”, which has been left as a rather efficient line editor, and “mail” sure does a good job!
Suppose we are looking at the UNIX prompt, “$”, on the screen. Then, we type “mail user-name@computer-name”, in order to set up the computer, for SENDing the message which follows, to the user with user-name “user-name” at the computer, bearing the name “computer-name”
Next, my cursor jumps to the start of the next line, which is blank, of course (no full-screen editor!). I enter the message, line by line (back-space editing only). I terminate the message, by typing only “.” on a line and pressing ENTER. The message can also be terminated, by typing ^D or ^d on a blank line, where ^ denotes first pressing the CONTROL key, (CAPS-SHIFT/EDIT on the 2068 with MaxCom). When the UNIX prompt $ consequently appears, the message will have been SENT to the addressee, user-name@computer-name.
Now, in order to check for your own email, simply type “mail” and press ENTER. A response of NO MAIL means an empty mailbox. Otherwise, “FROM: …” will appear, followed by any first email message in your mailbox.
After listing an email message to you, the UNIX prompt $ will appear. This initiates a reply, should you type “r” and press ENTER. This also deletes that particular letter from your mailbox. In order to delete the letter only (without a reply,) then simply type “d” after the UNIX prompt.
MAILING LISTS
These are something we can join, in order to keep our electronic mailboxes filled with interesting stuff.
For example, open your download buffer, in order to get an ASCII copy of the following session, where you get the UNIX prompt onto the screen, and then ENTER the line:
http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/mlarchiv
Don’t forget to close the download buffer, when finished!
It contains information on how to join (or leave) mailing lists, each devoted to a specific special interest group.
Whenever a member submits email to the mailing list, then it is immediately sent to all other members of the group.
So, all you need to know is how to send and receive email. Also, the address of an interesting mailing list to talk with, would be helpful. 🙂
FTP – File Transfer Protocol
“ftp” is the name of the UNIX program, for implementing FTP. First, get the UNIX prompt “$” on the screen. ENTER “ftp” alone, followed on the next line by “open rtfm.mit.edu”. This last will be in response to the ftp prompt, “ftp>”, resulting from the initial entry of “ftp”. Alternatively, we can connect to the remote host, “rtfm.mit.edu”, by ENTERing the line:
ftp rtfm.mit.edu
The ftp facility can be terminated, by typing “quit”, in response to any ftp> prompt.
Use the “get” command, to download any file to your current directory.
Of course, you should already have set up a directory on the UNIX system, where you store your downloaded files. Do this, BEFORE you use ftp to access the remote directory. Furthermore, there are simple commands like “cd”, to change to the desired remote directory.
Now, we can up- and down-LOAD all kinds of files, as the Internet machine with UNIX is a bit more sophisticated than our 2068 system.
Just be aware, that downloads to our 2068 system are limited to ASCII transfers.
USENET(news groups)
The UNIX program for accessing USENET is called “tin”. Now, if you just ENTER the name “tin” then would follow an endless sequence of questions, on subscribing to new news groups, each question demanding a YES or NO answer, followed by an identical question !! So, here is what we do:
At the UNIX prompt, “$”, ENTER “tin -q”. This will bring up a menu of ALL news groups, which you have used. You can enter any news group on the list, by ENTERing its line number from the list, followed by another ENTER. We escape back to the last menu, by ENTERing “q”. We can keep ENTERing q’s like this, till we reach the UNIX prompt.
At the UNIX prompt, we can also choose to read a specific news group, say “alt.1d” on one-dimensional figures, by ENTERing the line “tin -q alt.1d” and, yes, the space(s) following “tin” are critical!
The important thing is the ability to arrive at the UNIX prompt, “$”, on the screen. While this is more complicated, than lifting a telephone receiver for the dial tone, this is still a simple task, costs about $20 monthly, and requires the advice of your Internet service provider. So, when signing up for Internet access, be sure to keep track of the telephone number of the SYSOP (system administrator!)
GOPHER
Let’s explore gopherspace! Sounds like the underworld, doesn’t it! To do this, we call on a UNIX program, called “gopher”
While looking at the UNIX prompt, “$”, we can type “gopher” and then press ENTER. This will access any local gopher site, as set up by the SYSOP. In order to access a specific gopher site, say wiretap.spies.com, then enter the line:
gopher wiretap.spies.com
Up comes the MENU, most of whose items refer to other Menus. So, choose an item, by ENTERing its line number, or by pressing the space key, or space bar, till the item is displayed at screen bottom. Then, enter the item, by pressing ENTER.
After thus searching the Menus for your particularly interesting item, then enter the item, by pressing ENTER. Next, program “gopher” will fetch your topic and display the text on your screen, one page at a time.
So, you can spend all day (or night!) exploring the underworld of gopherspace, using only six basic commands: “k” (or ^P) and “j” (or ^N) to move UP and DOWN within a menu, respectively, ENTER and “u” to move from one menu to the next or previous, respectively; and SPACE (or > or +) and “b” (or < or -) to page forward and backward through long Menus, respectively.
Should we get lost amongst all these Menus of Menus, we can always type “m”, to escape to the initial menu!
At the UNIX prompt, “$”, we can escape back to the Internet main menu, by typing “stop” or ^D. We terminate the session, by escaping the Internet with ^C at the main MENU!
THE NET
The net is man’s latest attempt at a universal communication system.
After using the phone to connect to an Internet provider (like using TELNET), mailing lists offered the first such attempt. Then, USENET followed with a little better access to the web, in order to support newsgroups of common interests (like using message bases and BBSs.) The gopher system improved on those capabilities a bit with menu-driven access (like Menus of Menus of … .) Then, the World Wide Web (www) was developed at Cern in Switzerland, to access massive amounts of Physics information. Thanks to Marc Andreesen and his program, MOSAIC, the www degenerated into THE WEB: A complete information system with links, to permit EASY jumping from ideas to words to pictures to sounds … . Now, Goedel’s Theorem, that completeness is tantamount to inconsistency, is surely applicable here, as there is little consistency in the NET.
LYNX is the program, used to access the web from a shell account. It runs on the Internet computer and furnishes all the above words and ideas of the web.
Be that what it may, we presume, that we are looking at the UNIX prompt, “$”, on our screen, CRT, or monitor. If you simply type “lynx” and press ENTER, then you should get the banner for your local Internet system, that you are now using. In order to get access to somebody else’s site, you have to type their user-name@computer-name, after typing “lynx ” . Of course, it is important to separate “lynx” from “user-name@computer-name” (by spaces.)
The above procedure should result in any site’s banner and/or main menu.
TALK
The talk facility is implemented by the UNIX program, “talk”
Usage is the same as SOL BBS in TALK mode or in TERM mode. Some people refer to this interchange of ASCII information as CHAT mode. The other person needs a talk facility, which is compatible with the UNIX “talk” program. It also helps, that they are at the computer, addressed on the Internet. 🙂
Programs for talk, which are compatible with UNIX “talk”, are available on the Internet for download at no cost, using anonymous ftp. ENTER the following line :
talk user-name@computer-name
in order to connect (for free) to the person, using user-name “user-name” at the computer “computer-name”
If the person is there and not busy, then he or she will be paged and asked to respond with a like talk command, using our user-name and computer-name. Connection follows, and you can both begin talking.
If the person is there and busy, then [Ringing your party again] will appear on our screen every ten seconds, till either connection is established or we press ^C. Before we try to talk to someone, using the talk facility, always “finger” them with the line :
finger user-name@computer-name
The information from finger should tell us, whether the person is logged-in and willing to talk.
The conversation can be terminated, when someone hits ^C.
Then, the UNIX prompt, “$”, reappears.
These are like FREE phone calls, all over the world!
INTERNET RELAY CHAT
This is an ultimate TALK facility, talk, talk, talk,…, talk. Once on board, everything you type is printed to everyone else’s screen, and you see everything typed by everyone else!
Private messages, can be sent and/or received to/from any on-line user. For a list of the (thousands of) users, on-line, type /LIST
Anyway, in order to access this facility, get the UNIX prompt, “$”, on the screen, and ENTER “irc”
My local access is to EFNET, which has users from over nineteen countries (foreign languages!)
For example, there is a guy from downtown Belgrade, Yugoslavia, broadcasting on student activities there. He uses an irc channel. Also, some guy is listed as “silversto”, which is my birth name. Wonder what’s on his mind … ! Most exchange is in English, but I saw some Spanish lingo in the LIST.
MULTI-USER DUNGEONS
A MUD is a game program. No, it’s much more, since it provides a game environment among several players. That’s how muds are all the same. Mud’s are all different, by providing different environments, relating the players … differently! You are going to have to ask your friends, about which ones to choose.
HINTS
Three hints will make life a lot easier at the keyboard of our 2068’s, when accessing the Internet.
1. Get the UNIX prompt, “$”, onto the screen. Then, ENTER the line:
stty erase ^H
This will set the description of our TTY, to accept the 2068 DELETE of CAP-SHIFT/ “0”, whereas the UNIX system is looking for a DEL character, such as generated by DELETE on my APPLE II C+.
2. Describe the screen width of the 2068 system as : stty COLS 63
3. Similarly, set the screen length with : stty ROWS 18
When I get $ onto the screen, the FIRST thing I do is item #1, above. If I make typing errors, and the backspace is the ONLY device available to line editors. Hints #2 and #3 are useful, only when I want to READ the screen, page by page.