| Mount Holyoke College |
| |||||
|
|
|
|||
| |||||
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|||||
This is a Frequently Asked Questions document specifically designed to provide answers to questions which crop up regularly and persistently on mhc.comp.questions. Many of them are also explained elsewhere; this document is a quick reference rather than a detailed explanation.
| Other places to find help: | LITS' Help Me Now! FAQ |
| mhc.comp.questions | |
| Help Desk (x2600) |
In general, there is information on many topics available through
your Mount Holyoke shell account. Type
see topics at the prompt
for the list of available topics. In addition, there always the UNIX
man pages. Simply type man tin, for example.
Finally, several common questions are referenced in the message of the day. Type motd at the prompt to see it. The text of it (as of May 19, 2001) is reproduced here for convenience:
============================================================================= Digital UNIX V5.1 -- `exit' or `lo' to logout. Enter: motd To display this message of the day again. ============================================================================= Password changing and password security. Enter: see passwd For information about Internet email hoaxes. Enter: see hoax Continuing your account after graduation? Enter: see graduation Information on how to set email forwarding. Enter: forwarding Setting a vacation or auto-reply message. Enter see vacation Information on connecting to MHC from home. Enter: see access Obtaining a student computer IP number. Enter: ip-request Information about your various disk spaces. Enter: see accountspace Inclement weather and general information. Call: 413-538-2330 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web information. Residence hall networking: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/resnet Other network/systems use: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network General computer help: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/tsr ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information on the health of our computer/network systems, enter: sysnews -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For questions that are not answered here, Pine has a help file (H from wherever you're stuck). You can also type see pine at the prompt for more information than you really wanted to know. The University of Washington, where Pine was developed, also has a Pine Information Center.
When viewing an email with an attachment, hit V to view the file, then hit S to save it. Edit the filename if you wish, then hit enter. The file is saved in your home directory. Now either map your network drive or connect using FTP, retrieve the file, virus-scan it (look here if you don't have anti-virus software), and be happy. Don't forget to delete the file from your network space when you're done.
For more information, look at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/tsr/local.experts/attachments/.
There are two ways to create folders. One way is to arrow down to a message which you want to store in the new folder and hit S. Enter the name of the folder and hit Y when Pine asks you if you want to create it.
The second way is to hit L for "Folder List" and then move down into the "Folder-Collection (Mail)" section. Hit A to add a new folder. Enter the name and hit Enter. You can also edit existing folders by hitting R for "Rename."
In the main menu of Pine (hit M to get there), hit S for "Setup," R for "Rules," and F for "Filters." Now hit A to add a rule. Use arrow keys to navigate and hit C to change values. Once you're done, hit E to exit and Y to save changes.
Decide on a sig which is reasonably short. General
netiquette recommends that a sig should be less than four lines; in no
circumstances should it exceed seven. In addition, it should be preceded
by a separator: "-- " (dash dash space return).
This separator allows programs such as Tin to snip everything below it
automatically when replying.
First way: In the main screen of Pine (hit M to get there if you're not), hit S for "Setup" and once again for "Signature." Enter and/or edit the text. When you are done, hit Ctrl-X to save. The signature will now appear in every email you send.
Second way: At the prompt, enter the command: pico .signature. Type your desired text, then hit Ctrl-X to save the file. Confirm the file name by hitting return, select y to confirm that you want to save it, and you are now back at the prompt.
Contributed by Carolyn Crowley.
Pine is an email client which runs on the UNIX servers at MHC; it is also possible to configure desktop email clients to retrieve MHC email.
Netscape has an email client, Netscape Messenger, built in. Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express are Microsoft products and therefore also common. Another extremely good email client is Eudora, which has two free versions.
For instructions on setting up Netscape Messenger, see http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/tsr/netscape_mail/configuration.html.
General instructions, including other email clients, are at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/email/desktop-email.html.
POP and IMAP are different email protocols. One difference is that MHC supports only IMAP for off-campus users, not POP. Read http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/email/desktop-email.html for more information.
For more information, enter see access at the prompt or look at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/doc/access.txt.
You do this through the forwarding command in telnet. Enter forwarding at the prompt for more details.
Type see vacation at the prompt for more information.
That's a good question. Part of the difference is technical; whereas every person to which an email is sent receives a different copy, a usenet post is stored only one time on every news server, and anyone with access to a news server that carries that newsgroup can download and read it. For more information, read the What is Usenet? FAQ which is periodically posted to news.announce.newusers.
Pine is an email client. Tin is a dedicated newsreader. This means that in some ways, Tin manages newsgroups better. For example, it marks cross-postings read in all groups when they have already been viewed or marked read in one; it also threads discussions by subject. On the other hand, sorting messages by subject in Pine does approximately the same thing.
Multiple posting is when you send the same post individually to multiple newsgroups (or to the same group more than once, which is even more annoying). Cross-posting is when all groups are listed together in the subject line. With cross-posting, only one copy is stored on the server, and Tin conveniently marks cross-posts read in other groups.
In Pine: Hit L to go to the "Folder List" and move down to the bottom section, "News-Collection." Now hit A for "Add," type either all or part of the name of the newsgroup you want, and hit enter. Pine will search the list of groups for ones matching the string you entered; select the group you want and hit enter, then once again. You can also hit Ctrl-T to search the whole list of available groups.
In Tin: In the main screen, hit Shift-S and enter the name of the newsgroup you want. Hit enter. You can also hit y to yank in all available groups and then select the ones you want to subscribe to. (The yanking process will take a while; be patient.) Arrow down to the group you want and hit s to subscribe (u to unsubscribe). Note: Commands in Tin are case-sensitive.
For more information, type see tin at the prompt.
In Tin, you can either "hot" or "kill" an author, subject, and/or message-id. What do "hot" and "kill" mean? While reading the message you want to filter, hit Ctrl-A to "hot" the message or Ctrl-K to kill it. You will then be confronted with a page of options.
| "Kill text pattern:" | If there's a generic pattern to the subject/author/etc. you want to filter, type it here, for example "XXX" to get rid of many sex spams. |
| "Apply pattern to:" | Press space to toggle your options here until you see one you like. Press return to take you to "Select Lines." |
| Alternatively, you could press return without typing anything on the first line, and it would take you to "Kill Subject." | |
| "Kill Subject" "Kill From" "Kill Msg-Id": |
Press space to toggle whether or not to kill on these criteria. |
| "Kill Lines: (</>num):" | (What does this do?) |
| "Kill time in days:" | Number of days the terms are good for; the default if you just press return is 'unlimited'. |
| "Kill pattern scope:" | Default is the newsgroup you are viewing when you enter the killfile menu. |
Or just press Ctrl-K and mess around until you get something that works. You can quit the killfiling process without changing anything by pressing Esc.
Contributed by Whitney Fraser.
You, personally, can not actually "delete" a post. A distinction must be made here and it is based on where you are reading your newsgroups from.
Reading news from within Tin: Whenever you read someone's post it will automatically be marked as "Read" and by default it will not appear again the next time you are within that newsgroup. However, these "Read" posts are readily available by hitting r.
Reading news from within Pine: Whenever you read a post, it will no longer be marked as N (New). However to make it go away from your list, you would need to hit D to "Delete it". At this point, if you hit X, you can "eXclude" deleted posts from your list so that they will go away. Also, if you quit Pine and then re-enter that newsgroup you will no longer see your deleted posts.
However, similar to as within Tin, the post will not really be deleted. Deleted posts are readily accessible by hitting & to "unXclude" them.
Note: The news server is set up to completely get rid of posts that are older than a certain amount of time. This is apparent in both Tin and Pine.
Contributed by T. Milewski.
In Tin, be reading the post you want to cancel/delete and hit Shift-D. This will send a cancel-post. However, some news servers do not honor cancel requests, and the later you send the cancel, the more people will have seen your post. Thus, cancelling is of very limited utility.
Netscape and Internet Explorer are the two big graphical browsers, but there are also others such as Opera and the open-source Mozilla. Which of these to use is the subject of browser wars and not the purpose of this FAQ. They all have advantages and disadvantages. In the end, it comes down to personal preference.
In contrast, lynx is a text-only browser. To start it, type lynx at the % prompt. You will, by default, be taken to MHC's index page. Hit ? for help, q to quit.
For more information, see http://www.mtholyoke.edu/help/creating-pages/FAQ/browser.shtml.
All of those listed above can be downloaded for free. In addition,
Netscape Communicator can be copied from \\ambr\distribution.
Information about writing pages for the MHC website is at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/help/creating-pages/.
Networking web page: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/
Look at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/resnet/.
Windows:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/resnet/setup-w95.shtml
Mac:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/network/resnet/setup-mac.shtml
Scroll down to the bottom and then up a bit until you get to the top of the "Using network file spaces" section.
See also Quotas.
For more information type see accountspace at the prompt.
Don't. It's much easier simply to map a drive.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a way to transfer files, like HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). It is often used inconspicuously by web browsers to download files such as program installers; however, there are also FTP clients such as the two elaborated below.
Windows has a basic command-line FTP client built in. To get to it, open the Start menu, click on Run, and type ftp mhc.mtholyoke.edu. (If you want to connect to your webspace, type ftp www.mtholyoke.edu.) When it connects, you will be prompted for your username and password.
Here are a few basic commands:
| put filename.ext | Move a file from PC to server |
| get filename.ext | Move a file from server to PC |
| dir | List the contents of current directory |
| pwd | Display current directory |
| cd foldername | Move into a subdirectory on server |
| cd .. | Move up into the parent directory on server |
| lcd c:\ | Move into root directory on PC |
| ascii | Change to ascii mode |
| bin | Change to binary mode |
| quit | End FTP session and break connection with server |
For more information, type see ftp at the prompt.
WS_FTP LE (Light Edition) is available for free on the web or from
\\ambr\distribution. It is much easier and self-explanatory
than command-line FTP.
When WS_FTP starts up, it will prompt you to connect to a FTP server.
enter the server information (mhc.mtholyoke.edu or
www.mtholyoke.edu), your username, and your password, and
click connect. The basic FTP process is the same as with command-line FTP,
but you don't have to remember the commands, and it's easier to remember
what folder you're in.
Binary mode transfers the file exactly the way it is. This is for files such as images. Ascii mode is for plain-text files such as HTML and other web documents. It changes the file format from your computer's (Windows or Mac) to the server's (at MHC, UNIX). If in doubt, use binary mode. Your HTML won't really care, but it'll make a huge difference to your animated gifs.
mhc.mtholyoke.edu
and www.mtholyoke.edu?mhc.mtholyoke.edu connects to your home directory.
www.mtholyoke.edu connects directly to your webspace; while
you can get there from mhc, www will automatically
set the correct permissions for the web.
\\ambr\distribution from off-campus?No. This is because there are some programs for which MHC has on-campus licenses. The other programs that are available there, such as Netscape, are available free elsewhere, and MHC doesn't want people to use it as a distribution site.
talk and ytalktalk is a two-person chat program. ytalk is
basically the same but has more functionality, including the possibility of
chatting with more than one person.
talk is a program which involves two specific machines
connecting. For example, when someone wants to talk request me, they would
type talk username@mhc.mtholyoke.edu or
talk username@axis.mtholyoke.edu where mhc and
axis are specific machines. The best way to find out how to
talk to someone at another location (barring trial and error) is asking
them if they have talk and at what machine they log into. That's where
finger comes in. If someone does a finger username@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
they will see the last time that I was logged in. If I am logged in, they
can then send a talk request.
Contributed by Diane Bono, Class of '97
For more information, type see talk at the prompt.
IRC is a "multi-user, multi-channel chatting network." There are many programs available for it, for example mIRC and Pirch; the version on the MHC system is called ircII (type irc at the prompt to run). If you can, it's better to download one of the other versions (most people use mIRC) and run it on your own computer.
For more information, type see irc at the prompt.
For more information, type see finger at the prompt.
To change your "real life" name, office info, etc., you first need to be logged in on axis. If you are on mhc, just go to the prompt and type telnet axis and log in. At the prompt there, type chfn and then simply write in what you want your finger info to be.
To change your organization. At the prompt, type pico .login.
This is your "login file" and it saves a lot of needed info so your account
won't backfile and such. Do not change anything listed there yet.
(Although there is one change you can make that I will get to soon). To put
in a new organization, go to the end of the list where things start with
setenv. Add a new line. On that blank line, type in setenv
ORGANIZATION "", and between those quotation marks, put whatever you
want your organization to be, and then, the next time you post, it will say
something neat.
Contributed by Soli Johnson
Note: This function is one of the last which is still preserved on axis, and it will soon be moved onto a web-based form.
To change your project or plan, do the following. At the prompt, type pico .project or pico .plan and then in the space provided type whatever you want your plan to be. If you know a lot of people finger your account, then you might want to keep it a little short.
Contributed by Soli Johnson
For more information, type see plan at the prompt.
Type chmod 644 .plan at the prompt.
UNIX is the operating system used on MHC servers. Telnet is a program used to create a connection with the server. This is called having a shell account.
First find out the process ID number of the session you want to kill. Type ps at the % prompt to do this. This will list the process ID (PID) and location (TTY). One of these sessions is your current one, so type tty to find out your current location. Kill the other session(s) by entering kill -TERM # # # (where "#" is a PID number).
For more information, type see kill at the prompt.
Type hostdisplay at the prompt and choose the option you want.
MHC has limits, or quotas, to the amount of server space it allows to its users. There are two kinds of quotas, hard and soft. It is possible to exceed the soft quota temporarily, but not the hard quota. Once the soft quota is filled, there is a grace period of a few days; if the usage is not then brought below the soft quota, the soft quota becomes the hard quota, and nothing more can be stored (i.e. no incoming email). Type hquota at the % prompt for more information.
Type quota at the % prompt on mhc. The numbers in the column
under blocks is how much you have saved (in kilobytes);
quota and limit are, respectively, the soft and
hard quotas.
Information about obtaining and using anti-virus software is at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/tsr/anti-virus/.
Networking has a page about security issues for Windows 95, 98, and NT.
Type getgrades at the prompt.
You can also email them to yourself: getgrades | mailx -s Grades username@mtholyoke.edu.
Type see graduation at the prompt.
Glossary of common internet terms
Home | MyMHC | Web Email | Directories | SiteMap | Search | Help
Admission |
Academics |
Campus Life |
Athletics Last modified on June 12, 2001. |