BY HOW TO USE THE INTERNET
Netcom Version
By
DONALD BURR
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Logging On
Electronic mail (e-mail):
World Wide Web (WWW)
Gopher
Usenet News (Newsgroups)
File Transfer (FTP)
TELNET
Finger
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
It’s quite simple, really. Here’s how!
As you go through the steps below, please refer to the following information. Some steps will require you to type it in.
Your Username: type in
Your Password: type in
Following this page is more in-depth information on specific parts of NetCruiser.
The true power of the Internet lies not in World Wide Web, Gopher, or any of the other various flashy technologies that the media talks about. The true power of the Internet lies in e-mail, an instantaneous global communications method that allows you to share your thoughts, ideas, or express yourself with one or millions of people across the street or across the globe, virtually instantaneously.
To read mail, click on the button with a picture of an "In" box. To send mail, click on the picture of an envelope coming out of a computer’s screen.
Reading mail:
You will be asked what folder to view. Folders provide a way where you can store interesting mail on your own computer, so that it doesn’t clutter up the disk space on Netcom’s mail server machine. The "Inbox" folder is the contents of your mail on the Netcom server; the "Saved Mail" folder is the contents of the mail you have stored on your hard disk.
In either case, you will be presented with a window containing several pictures, and a list of messages. Here’s how this works:
Pictures - These buttons do various things to the "current" message (the one that is selected [i.e. highlighted] on the top list).
To reply to the current message, press the button of a pen writing on paper.
To forward a copy of the current message to one or more people, press the button of an envelope with arrows coming out of it.
To save the current message into your hard drive, press the button of a picture of a disk. (Note: this does nothing if you are viewing messages in your saved messages folder. Once you save a message, it DOES NOT get automatically deleted from the Netcom mail server; you must do this yourself)
To read the current message, press the picture of a right-pointing arrow. You can also do this by double-clicking on a message's summary line (see below).
To delete the current message, press the picture of a trash can.
Folder Name Box - The box at the top center of the window shows the name of the folder you are currently viewing. If you click on it, a list of mail folders will appear; you can switch folders quickly this way.
Top pane - The rest of the window is split into two "panes"; the top pane displays summary lines, one per message that’s in the current folder. The summary lines contain the message number, sender’s e-mail address, and the subject of the message.
Bottom pane - The bottom pane displays the text of the message when you choose to read it (clicking the right-pointing arrow or double-clicking on a message).
Sending mail:
When you send a new message, you will be presented with a box that allows you to choose who to send your message to. You can either type in your own addresses, or select them from your Address Book (more on how to create an address book later). Click the appropriate "Use ->" button to move the address you’ve selected into the list of recipients. When done selecting addresses, click "OK." This step is omitted when replying to a message, since the computer already knows the address of the original message’s sender (hence the address to whom to send your reply).
Now you’ll be put into the actual message editor. The blinking cursor is on the "Subject:" line. Enter your subject and press TAB; this takes you into the message body. (If replying to a message, you go straight into the message’s body; the subject is filled in for you).
Now you can type the actual "meat" of your message. You need not press RETURN after every line; the computer automatically word-wraps for you.
There are four buttons located at the top of the message entry window. Here’s what they do:
Picture of a RolodexÔ file: This allows you to change who the message is being sent to, or add additional recipients to send copies to.
Picture of a paper clip: This allows you to send a file attachment with this message. The reader will be able to download the file to his or her own computer. Use this to send already-prepared material, such as a Microsoft Word document or Excel spreadsheet, along with your message.
Picture of an envelope coming out of a computer’s screen: This button sends the message you have entered.
Picture of a ripped-up envelope: This button cancels this message. Use if you change your mind and don't want to see this message after all.
The World Wide Web is the latest and greatest technology to hit the Internet. This new and exciting part of the Internet presents otherwise dry material into a bright, vibrant multimedia format, complete with pictures, sound, and even video clips.
Clicking on the button of a picture of a spider’s web will bring you into the World Wide Web.
You will start out viewing Netcom’s "Home Port." This is a "table of contents" of sorts prepared by Netcom staff, to assist new users in finding their way around the more popular parts of the Web. This is, by no means, a "be-all, end-all" catalog of the Internet; there are far, far, far more Web sites out there than any one list (or even a whole group of lists) can catalog. You will find references to these sites in many forms – e-mail messages from friends or associates, Usenet news (newsgroups) posts, references on FTP (file transfer) sites, and many other places. Feel free to explore!
The Web screen has several parts to it. Here is an explanation of what they are:
Buttons: There are several buttons that control what you can do on the Web. Here are what they mean.
Folder: This allows you to open a Web document that you have stored on your hard drive.
Disk: This allows you to save the currently-viewing Web document to disk.
Book with bookmark in it: This opens up your Bookmarks list. Bookmarks, as the name implies, allow you to "mark" certain Web pages or sites of interest to you. In the Bookmarks window, you can go to one of the sites listed by clicking on it and then clicking the "Jump" button. To add a new site, type its name and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the two boxes, and click "Add". To delete a Web site, click on it and press "Delete".
Magnifying glass: This allows you to search for a certain word or phrase in the current Web document. Useful in you're viewing a long file and you're only interested in certain portions or topics in it.
House: This button brings you back to your "home." The page you view when you first start up the Web is called your "home". This way, you can explore the Web without getting lost. It's like the red slippers in "The Wizard of Oz" -- click them, and you get taken back home.
Arrows: When viewing different Web documents, the computer keeps track of the last few you've viewed. This way, you can go back to a previous page, if you've somehow taken a wrong turn. The left-pointing arrow takes you backwards, while the right-pointing arrow takes you forwards.
Stop sign: This button isn’t always on your screen; it only pops up while a Web page is loading. Clicking on this button will cause NetCruiser to stop loading the page. This is useful if you are trying to view a Web page and it gets "stuck" somehow. This can happen if the machine it's running on crashes, or there is a problem with the network somewhere down the line, or if the Web site or network is particularly busy (heavily in use).
Address Box: The box in the top middle of the screen lists the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the page you are currently viewing. Clicking on the little arrow at the right end of this box will bring up a "history" of the past few Web pages you've viewed; this way, you can get back to a previously-viewed page instantaneously. If you wish to visit a new page, you may type its address into this box.
Viewing Area: The rest of the screen is devoted to the actual Web page itself. Its text and any associated pictures are displayed here. Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to move around the page, if it's too big to fit on one screen. Your cursor will occasionally turn into an up-pointing arrow; this always happens when it is placed over blue underlined text, and sometimes happens when placed over graphic images. This means that the image or text you are above contains a "link" to another Web page. Clicking your mouse on these links will take you there. Remember, if you want to go back, click on the left-pointing arrow.
In nature, a gopher is a small, burrowing animal that roots around for things of interest to it (food, material to build nests with, etc.) In American slang, a gopher (or, more typically spelled "gofer") is a person who runs errands for an office, professor, boss, etc. – picking up or dropping off food and other items, performing various other tasks, etc. In Internet terminology, the Gopher service really isn’t that different from any of these other definitions: it allows you to specify what subject matter(s) you are interested in, and the Gopher program goes out, roots around the Internet, finds it, and brings it back to you.
Accessing Gopher from NetCruiser is easy. Simply click on the picture of a gopher’s head (that cute little animal-like creature with big buck teeth).
You’ll be asked which Gopher server you wish to access. For now, picking the default (the gopher server at Netcom) will do fine. This is because all (well, almost all) Gopher servers in the world are "linked" together, so that you can access the information from all Gopher servers, no matter which particular Gopher server you are currently connected to.
The Gopher browser window will appear. This window is similar to the World Wide Web window, though there are some differences.
The top part of the screen contains several buttons. These are used to navigate through "Gopherspace," as it is called. Here is an explanation of what the various buttons do:
Picture of a disk - This allows you to save the currently-viewed Gopher item to your hard disk.
Picture of a book with a bookmark in it - This allows you to set a "bookmark" to point to the currently-viewed Gopher document or directory. From this screen, you can add new bookmarks, delete ones you don’t want anymore, and go to (jump to) bookmarks in your list.
Picture of a magnifier - This allows you to search through the currently-viewing Gopher topic for a specific word or phrase.
Picture of a house - This takes you back "home" – to the Gopher area you first started out at. This is useful if you wander around Gopher so long that you get "lost" and forget the "path" back to somewhere.
Picture of a left-pointing arrow - This takes you back to the previously-viewed Gopher topic or menu.
Picture of a stop sign - If you are currently attempting to access a Gopher service, and it is not "going through," this could be because the machine that it’s on is down, or the network connection is acting flaky, or the machine or network is overloaded (too many people trying to access it at once). If this happens, press the Stop sign button to tell NetCruiser to stop trying; this way, you can browse through other items so you can try accessing this one again later.
The two text boxes in the top center of the screen tell you the address of the Gopher server you are currently viewing.
The rest of the screen is devoted to the information displayed by the Gopher server. Gopher servers operate in one of three modes: "viewing" mode (where you are viewing a particular topic), "directory" mode (where you are presented with a directory of available topics) and "search" mode (where you are allowed to type in a word or phrase to search for). These three modes look differently.
The "directory" mode looks like a list. Each item on the list consists of an icon (that denotes the type of item this is referring to) followed by a name. If the icon is a picture of a file folder, then this entry will lead to another directory. If the icon appears as a piece of paper with writing on it, this choice will jump you directly into "viewing" mode showing the information on this topic. If the icon appears as a magnifying glass, this choice will jump you into "search" mode. In "directory" mode, you go to a particular topic by double-clicking on it. A "pointing finger" icon will appear at the very left of the screen, to indicate which topic you have chosen.
"Search" mode appears as a single window, asking you for a search string. Type in a word or phrase to search for, and click "OK."
"Viewing" mode simply displays pages of text. Use the scroll bars to page through it. If you want to save it to disk, you can click on the "save" button (the picture of a floppy disk). To finish reading this text, press the left-pointing arrow button ("go back"). This takes you back to the menu you were on before viewing this topic.
The Internet was designed, from the start, to facilitate easy communications between its members. It was, after all, originally funded by the Department of Defense, to enable its contractors (and the scientists who work there) to communicate their latest research, ideas, questions, and answers, among each other. E-mail worked really well for this.
But, e-mail has its flaws as well. It’s great for communicating amongst one or several people, but what if you want many people to participate in a sort of "round table", shooting ideas back and forth? E-mailing each message to a hundred or more recipients is pretty hard, and adds a tremendous load to the network. Mailing lists have helped this matter, but they are still somewhat cumbersome to use and maintain. What the Internet needed was a sort of "public bulletin board," similar to the cork bulletin boards found in many offices. A place where anyone can look at the messages already posted, and perhaps scribble their own message and tack it up. This was why Usenet (otherwise known as "network news," "netnews," or simply "news") was created.
Usenet news is described into many different "newsgroups," each dealing with a certain topic. The newsgroups are named so that it is relatively easy to discern what the newsgroup’s subject matter is, by the title. For example, the "alt.tv.simpsons" newsgroup is a place for discussing "The Simpsons" cartoon; whereas "comp.sys.mac.games" is devoted to discussions of games and game playing on the Macintosh computer.
Any user may read messages in a newsgroup. Users can also reply to a message(s) in various ways – they can broadcast their reply to the entire newsgroup, or send it by e-mail to only the person who wrote the originating message. This way, if you want to make a comment directed only at that individual, you don’t have to clog up the whole newsgroup with your comments.
NetCruiser has two buttons devoted to news. To read news, you press the button with a picture of a newspaper. To post a new news message, press the button that looks like a newspaper with a lightning bolt superimposed on it.
I will now describe each aspect (reading and posting) separately.
Reading News:
Once you press the "read news" button, you will be shown a list of newsgroups you are subscribed to. At present, there are well over 20,000 newsgroups in existence (!), and it is humanly impossible to read each message in every newsgroup. Therefore, most news reading software (including NetCruiser) provides a "subscription" mechanism, where you choose only the newsgroups you want to read.
Netcom automatically subscribes you to several newsgroups of importance to Netcom users, and new users to the Internet in general. You should probably remain subscribed to these groups, as they provide valuable information. Here they are, and what they contain.
netcom.netcruiser.announce
This newsgroup is devoted to announcements concerning the NetCruiser software. For example: "We’ve discovered a bug that causes your system to crash!," "An update to version 3.0 is now available," "Here’s some hints and tips on how to get more power out of NetCruiser."
netcom.announce
This newsgroup is devoted to announcements concerning Netcom’s service itself. You’ll find announcements here concerning network outages, server shutdowns and maintenance schedules, possible down-time hours, and more.
news.announce.newusers
This group is for the purpose of welcoming new users to the Internet. Periodically, various information postings show up here, that concern new users (how to get started on the Internet, what is the Internet, how to use it, etc.)
news.newusers.questions
This is an excellent place to ask "newbie" questions about the Internet. If you just started using it, and are still a bit clueless, even after reading this wonderful document, this is the place to go.
To pick a newsgroup, click on it, and press "OK" (or double-click on the newsgroup).
Some groups do not contain any articles in them. If you’ve picked one of these groups, you will get a blank window with the words "empty group" at the bottom. Simply close this window, re-click on the "Read News" button (picture of a newspaper), and select a different newsgroup.
Once you’ve selected a newsgroup with articles in it, you will be given a window that allows you to select how many messages you wish to view. This is important, especially if you have just started reading news. You see, in real life, when you subscribe to a newspaper, you do not get all of the back issues of that newspaper; rather, you get the newspaper starting the day they receive your cash or check. However, because of the way the Internet is set up, when you start reading a new newsgroup, you receive all of the articles in that group that the news system knows about. Depending on how often the news system cleans out its hard disks, this could range from about three days’ worth of backlog news, to well over a month or two. This can lead to a lot of reading, especially in heavily-used newsgroups.
This window allows you to limit the amount of news articles you receive to a sane value. This window contains two slider bars. The bar at the top selects the FIRST article you wish to receive, and the one below it selects the LAST article you wish to receive. Lastly, an counter at the bottom of the page tells you how many articles you will be retrieving, if you accept this selection. Once you’ve set them up properly, click "OK" and you will be put into the News Reading window.
The News Reading window looks similar to the E-mail Reading window. There are a row of buttons at the top, plus an indicator that shows the name of the newsgroup you are reading. The next part of the screen shows summary lines for each news article in this group. And, the bottom part of the window shows the actual news message, when you select one to read.
The Internet was originally created by the Defense Department, so that academic and corporate entities performing DoD contract work could communicate and share data with each other. Later, when the Internet was "de-militarized," educational institutes started using it to share research data and computing resources.
All o this data sharing was made possible by the fact that all computers on the Internet are in contact with each other 24 hours a day. Researchers could swap notes and theories among each other (or small groups) via e-mail. They could broadcast their theories and questions to the rest of the world for public comment via Usenet news. But what if a researcher has a problem that requires a special computer program to solve, yet another researcher halfway around the world wrote such a program and is willing to share it? Or what if a researcher has a large file of data (say, on astronomical observations) that he/she wants to make publicly accessible?
Public domain and shareware programs have always been popular, even before the Internet; now they are doubly so. These "try before you buy" programs allow you to evaluate them, and only if you like them and find them useful, do you have to pay money to buy them (and their cost is usually smaller than commercial software). Public domain or shareware programs exist to fill a number of needs -- balancing your checkbook, typing a letter or editing a text file, doing simple and complex numeric calculations. Now, public domain programs exist to make the Internet an easier and friendlier place to be. Public domain programs now exist that allow you to browse through the World Wide Web, receive and send e-mail, and even manage long lists of Internet "bookmarks." Yet how can these programs be "shared and enjoyed" across the Net?
Companies have always struggled with the problem of how to deliver software updates to users, in a quick and cheap manner. The Internet is a perfect means to do this -- it is fast, everyone uses it, and it is relatively cheap to use. But how can companies transmit files over the Net, and, more importantly, make them available for public consumption, without requiring a special username or password to access?
For these reasons, and many more the Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) standard was created. This standard enabled any two computers on the Internet, be they UNIX workstations, VAX machines, or individuals’ PCs or Macintoshes connected to the Net (or a combination of these), to send files, programs, or other types of data to each other.
Browsing through an FTP site is similar to browsing through your hard drive. FTP sites are organized into directories and files, just like your hard drive. In the old days of command-line interfaces, you had to use commands like CD or GET to maneuver through directories and download files. These days, though, with Windows and graphical interfaces, browsing through FTP sites is as simple as pointing and clicking.
To access FTP, click on the icon of a bunch of telephone poles with wires strung up on them.
You will be asked to enter the name of the FTP site you wish to use. Type it in, and click OK or press RETURN.
Now, you will be asked how to log in to the FTP server. Netcom assumes that you wish to use "anonymous FTP" to access this machine. This is usually the case, when you are accessing a public archive of software. If, however, you have an account on this machine, you can transfer files to and from it. In this case, turn off the "Anonymous FTP" check box (just click on it), and enter your account name and password for this computer, and click OK.
You will now be logged into the FTP server. Some FTP servers present a message to users when they log in; if such a message is sent, it will be displayed in a separate window. Simply close the window to start FTPing.
The main FTP window is divided into three parts. The top part contains the name of the current directory that you are browsing, plus some buttons to control the program. The middle part contains a listing of all directories on the FTP server, that are under your current directory. The bottom part of the screen contains the list of files (if any) that are in the current directory.
There is one special directory that is always listed in the directories window. This directory is the double-dot (listed as ".."). Changing into this directory will take you back to the previous directory to where you are now. It is similar in function to the "go back" (left arrow) buttons you’ve seen in the World Wide Web, Gopher, etc.
In order to tell FTP to do something, you will need to tell it what to perform the action with. To do this, select either a file or directory (depending on what type of action you wish to take) by clicking once on it.
Here are the valid actions you can take:
Change Directory: To enter a directory, simply double-click on it.
Download File: To download a file (transfer it from the remote machine to your hard drive), you may do one of two things: Double-clicking on a file will download it. Or, click the file name once, and click the download button (it is a picture of a disk with a red arrow pointing towards it). When downloading, you are asked the type of file it is you wish to download. Text files usually end in ".txt" or ".text," and most other files should be downloaded as binary (definitely compressed or archive files, such as ZIP files).
Upload a File: To upload a file (send it from your hard disk to the remote machine), click the upload button (the picture of a disk with a blue arrow pointing away from it). This is only one of two actions that does not require you to click on a file first. You will be prompted to locate the file you wish to upload on your hard disk. Once you find it, click OK. You will then be asked to give the name that you wish to call the file on the remote machine. Be sure to follow the conventions o the machine you are sending to; VAX machines, for example, do not allow spaces in their file names, and the names must end with a 3-character file extension. Once you have successfully named the file, click OK, and the transfer will begin. Note: Some public FTP servers allow users to submit files to them, but usually only in a directory called "incoming." There should be documentation lying around on the FTP server as to whether uploads are permitted, and if so, where to put them.
View a File: To view a file (see it on your screen), select a file, and click the view button (a picture of an eye). This will display the file’s contents on your screen. This is useful if you only want to scan a file for certain contents, instead of downloading it all.
Delete a File: To delete a file on the remote machine, select it, and click the delete button (a picture of a pencil eraser erasing the word "file"). Please note that it is considered extremely impolite (and in most cases, it is not even allowed) to delete a file that you do not own (such as files that are on public servers). Please use this function only on your own files.
Create a Directory: To create a new directory on the remote machine, click on the create directory button (a picture of a bunch of file folders, one of which is colored differently than the rest). You will be asked for the name of the directory you wish to create. Type it in and press RETURN (or click OK). Note: It is impolite (and often not possible) to muck around with directories (either creating or deleting them) on public FTP servers (i.e. ones where you personally do not have files at).
Delete a Directory: To delete an entire directory on the remote machine, first select it, and click the delete directory button. (This is the button with a picture of a bunch o file folders, on of which has an "X" through it). Again, it is impolite to mess with directories and files on public FTP servers (i.e. that are not yours).
Once you have transferred files with FTP, close the FTP window. Now you can do things with these files, such as viewing them in Notepad or Microsoft Word, unzipping them, etc.
Most computers connected to the Internet have security – you must have a valid user account on the machine in order to use it. However, some computers on the Internet act as "open houses" – they leave their doors open, and allow anyone to enter and stroll through them.
Perhaps you want to use one of these "open house" computers. Or, perhaps you have a valid account on a computer that is Internet accessible (perhaps your school’s computer, or a computer at your workplace), and want to use it (finishing your computer science programming assignment, perhaps, or checking on a project you are doing at your job). The TELNET facility is used in these cases.
To access a computer on the Net, you will need to know its host (site) name. If you have an account on a computer at school or work, you were probably given an account name, or an E-mail address. These typically look like this: sblc@silcom.com. The part to the left of the at-sing (@) is the user (or login) name, while the part to the right is the machine’s host (site) name.
Sometimes, you are given this information in two pieces: your user or login name is sblc, and your machine’s host (site) name is silcom.com.
Either way, you’ll need these two pieces of information in order to use TELNET. For the next steps, I will use this example (sblc@silcom.com).
TELNET can be accessed by clicking on the button depicting two computers connected with wires, with the words "TELNET" superimposed on the picture. You will then be asked to enter the host (site) name of the computer you wish to use. In this example, you would type "silcom.com".
Now, you are actually connected to that computer! It is as if you were sitting in front of a terminal directly connected to that computer, only your connection is a "virtual" one, done through the Internet. Any text that the computer prints out will appear on your screen, and any text you type in will appear to the computer as if you typed it in at its keyboard.
If you’re accessing a "open house" computer, you will usually be placed right in the area that the computer offers for public consumption. Sometimes you’ll need to enter a special user name (that has no password associated with it) in order to access the public material. In that case, read the paragraph below.
Most computers will now print an introductory message, followed by a request to enter your username. Here’s where you’d type that in. If you are not using one of the "open house" type computers I mentioned, you will probably be prompted for a password as well. Enter your password.
Many computers need to know what kind of terminal you are using. This is because the computer does not know what kind of hardware you are using to connect up to it. You could be using an actual terminal, hooked up to a modem, or you could be using a PC, Macintosh, or some other personal computer connected to a modem.
Do not fear, however! NetCruiser emulates one of the most popular terminals around, the DEC VT100. So, if you are asked what kind of terminal you have, tell it that you are using a VT100. (The method of how to do this varies widely, but usually typing "vt100" is sufficient.)
Sometimes, this information isn’t asked for, and you must tell the computer what terminal you are using. Again, the method of doing this varies far and wide. Historically, UNIX systems make up the bulk of Internet-connected computers, so I will let you know how to do this for UNIX. The command is:
(for Bourne Shell and derivatives, such as ksh, bash, etc.)
TERM=vt100; export TERM
(for C Shell)
setenv TERM vt100
Now, you will be dropped into the command line mode (or menu) of the computer. From here, access the computer like you normally would, if you were sitting in your school, office, etc. When you are done, it is polite to log off properly; usually typing "logout" or "exit" will do the trick. The TELNET window should automatically close then, but if it doesn’t, you can do it yourself by using the close box.
In police slang, to "finger" someone is to "get the goods" on them – basically, get their file of personal information (name, address, etc.). In the world of the Internet, many people make their information available to anyone who wishes it, and consequently there is a "finger" service that people use to access this information.
Most "Finger" services tell you at least the basics about a person: their name, and their username. Some display information such as their home and work addresses, office building and number, telephone numbers (home/work/fax/etc.), and other data. People who wish to remain private to various degrees can supply only the information they want you to have; thus, you can find some people whose home address and phone number is blank, but who have listed their office number and location, and work telephone number.
Some finger services also display information, such as when they last logged on to the Internet, and how big their mail "in box" is (and when it was last read). Still other finger services display free-form information that the user can type in any format they wish. Some people use this to display more personal information about them (their hobbies, which bars they frequent, etc.), while some use it as a repository for humorous (or maybe not-so-humorous) quotations, jokes, etc.
Finger information is accessed via e-mail address. In order to use Finger, you’ll need to know the complete e-mail address of the person you wish to find out about. This is usually available readily, in the headers of e-mail and Usenet messages, and most of the times can also be found at the bottom of Web pages.
E-mail addresses consist of two parts, separated by an at sign (@). The first part is the username, and the second part is the host name. Hence:
sjs@sbphy.physics.ucsb.edu
consists of a username part ("sjs") and a host name part ("sbphy.physics.ucsb.edu").
In the following examples, I will be using the above address (sjs@sbphy.physics.ucsb.edu) as an example.
Click on the picture of a pointing finger to access the Finger service.
When you click on the "Finger" button, NetCruiser will ask you for the "site." Enter the host name of the user you wish to finger. In this example, you would enter "sbphy.physics.ucsb.edu".
Now, a new screen will appear, consisting of several parts. The top part lists the hostname that you just entered, and also has a box where you can enter a username. Next comes a series of several buttons. Click "OK" to submit your "finger" query, or "Cancel" to quit out of this feature. While sending a finger query, a third button, labeled "Abort" will appear. Press it if the finger query is taking longer than expected (this can happen if the machine is down, or the network is busy, etc.). The rest of the screen consists of a blank area where the "finger" information will appear, when it is retrieved.
In the above example, you would click on the username input box, type "sjs", and press RETURN (or click the "OK" button). Shortly thereafter, a bunch of information about this particular individual will appear below. Use the scroll box and arrows to view it, if it’s longer than the length of your screen.
Earlier I had mentioned that E-mail is one of the best features of the Internet. Yet people in the real world communicate in other methods besides writing to each other (the real-world equivalent of e-mail). People realize that often, face-to-face, instantaneous communication is preferred to e-mail (even though e-mail is usually delivered quickly, the person receiving it may not read it for days, weeks, or months). And e-mail does not communicate to large groups efficiently – if lots of people want to carry on a conversation, they have to do it one at a time, giving enough time for everyone else to read the person’s comments. This lends a sort-of jerky, non-real-time aspect to it.
These shortcomings prompted the Internet community to develop an alternative to e-mail. It would have to be instantaneous, allowing both parties to see each others’ transmissions the moment they are made, and would have to allow efficient communications with groups, small and large. Thus came Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
IRC features "channels," where you can discuss things with one person or many. Each channel can be used to discuss certain topics (for example, the "#Windows95" channel discusses that operating system) and some are "shoot the breeze" type channels where there is really no set topic.
Within a channel, a user may send messages to all other users in that channel, or only to one or several of the users. Thus, private conversation can also be held while the public conversation is taking place. This is good if, for example, you want to ask a question or make a comment to a specific person, without disrupting the flow of the conversation.
Channels can be marked "private," in which you, and only you, select the person(s) who can gain admittance to that channel. This is great if you have a certain clique of friends or associates that you like to gab with, but don’t want to let any "outsiders" in. It’s also great for online club meetings, personal discussions, online love & romance, basically anything you don’t want someone to be able to wander in, overhear, and possibly print out to show to the rest of the world.
To access IRC, click on the icon with a picture of a pair of lips speaking the word "IRC."
You will now be presented with a window allowing you to select an IRC server. Netcom’s default choices are fine for now; the "Other IRC host" button allows you to use a non-default IRC host (you must type in the Internet address of the host you wish to use); this is useful if Netcom’s server ever goes down for some reason.
Netcom offers you two choices for possible servers; you can either use the "EFnet" or the "Netcom Private" server. EFnet is a global (worldwide) network of IRC servers; since all servers are tied together, you will be able to chat with literally zillions of people. The Netcom Private server is available to Netcom members only; thus, only people that have a Netcom account will be found here. This is good if you want to discuss a Netcom-specific topic with your fellow users.
You can also change your identity when in IRC. If you don’t want your e-mail address and real name available to everyone out there, use the "Nickname" and "Your Name" text boxes to change your identity to whatever you want. You can make up a fake name, you can use famous TV or movie characters (i.e. Star Trek)... basically, let your imagination run wild.
When you’ve set up everything you want to, click the "Connect" button at the bottom of the window, to actually hook up with the IRC server.
You will now see the IRC Control Panel window. This window will display "important system messages" from the IRC server (most of them are fairly meaningless computer-talk, but some useful messages can be seen here, like "The IRC server is about to go down. Get off now!") Plus, there is a row of control buttons at the top of the screen.
You cannot chat with anyone right now. That is because IRC initially puts you into sort of a "limbo" state – you aren’t in "talk" mode, but rather in "command" mode. You can’t start talking until you choose a channel.
If you wish to see a list of all available channels, find the IRC menu at the top of the screen, and select it. Now, find the "List..." choice, and select it. Finally, find the "Channels" sub-choice, and select it. A dialog box will appear with various choices. The "Channel" box is used if you want to get information on a specific channel only, instead of listing all of them; type in the channel’s name here if you desire that feature. The "Min User Count" and "Max User Count" boxes can be used to "filter" the list of channels, by listing channels with only a certain number of people in them. For example, if you dislike large discussions, you can set "Min User Count" to 1, and "Max User Count" to 10; thus, you are shown those channels that have between 1 and 10 users only. After setting your options, click "OK," and a list of channels will be displayed. Be aware that IRC has MANY channels, and the full list (if you didn’t restrict it with any of the above methods) will take a long time to appear.
The channel list has two columns. The column on the left lists the channel name. Note that all IRC channels begin with a pound sign (#). The right column shows a descriptive sentence or two about that channel, if available. To join a channel from this list, simply double-click on it.
Returning to the main control panel, to join an IRC channel, click on the picture of a man walking INTO a door (note the direction that the little red arrow is pointing). You’ll be asked to supply the channel’s name, and a password (if any). (The password is used when joining private or "invitation only" type channels.) Click "OK" and you will join said channel.
The icon of a person whispering to someone else allows you to do "special" things. It will ask you for the nickname of a person you want to do the "special thing" to, and will ask you what "special thing" you want done. "Query" will enter you into a private chat with that other person. "Who is" gives you information on that person (their real name, email address if it is available, etc.) "Who was" does the same thing, but only works on people who have already left or disconnected from IRC (that way, if you see someone’s name flash by, and you go "Who was that masked man?" you can easily find out.) The other available choices are of use only if you are actually running (moderating) a channel on IRC, and are not generally used.
The picture of a "no smoking" type sign allows you to ignore a person. If someone in your chat room is being really annoying or offensive, silence him/her! Enter the nickname of the person you wish to ignore. The series of check boxes allow you to ignore only specific types of messages from that person (thus, if you want to still be able to receive "private" communications from him/her, but not see messages from him/her in the public rooms, you can select "MSG" (which stands for "private messages")) Normally, you will want to ignore everything coming from this user – for this, use the "ALL" message type, which is already checked off for you. Then simply click "Add" to ignore this person. If you no longer want to ignore someone, find their name in the list at the right, click on it, and click "Remove Ignore Mask." Either way, click on "OK" once you’re done with this window.
The picture of a person sitting in front of a computer allows you to change information about yourself, and the way you appear to others. You can change your nickname, so if you get tired of the one you chose at startup, you can change it here. The "Modes" buttons allow you to change various properties of yourself. "Invisible" is a sort of "Romulan cloaking device" – your name will be unlisted (invisible) from everyone, yet you will still be able to talk in channels. The "Away Message" area allows you to set an "away message" – this message is displayed to those wishing to talk to you, if you are away from your computer. Thus, if you are hanging out in IRC, but you smell your dinner burning, you can mark yourself as "away" and have the message "My food is burning!!!!" displayed to everyone. They should get the message.
The "options form" button allows you to change various program options, such as the font and font size used to display IRC messages, and so forth.
Lastly, the picture of a man exiting a door (note the orientation of the red arrow) quits you out of IRC.
When you are actually inside a channel, a slightly different window will appear. This window has a row of buttons at top; their function is described next. The next part of the window is divided into two side-by-side portions. The portion at the left side displays the actual conversation – it scrolls up if it gets full. The portion at the right displays the list of users that are currently in this channel. The last line at the bottom is for you to type in your part of the conversation. Pressing ENTER (or RETURN) will send this bit of conversation to everyone else listening.
These options do generally the same things as the icons back in the main IRC box. Only the "enter door" and "exit door" buttons join or quit CHANNELS ONLY. Thus, if you press the "quit" button while in a channel, it won’t drop you out of IRC entirely, it will just quit you from that one channel.
The one new icon resembles a bunch of people sitting around a conference table. This allows you to change the properties associated with this channel. This is only available if you are the designated moderator of this channel (If you create your own channel, you are the moderator by default; or, if you’re in someone else’s channel, they can hand over the powers of moderation to you. Either way, if your name in the list at the right has an at symbol (@) in front of it, you are a moderator of this channel.)
The properties allow you to change this channel’s topic (this is the short blurb shown in the channel listing). You can also set various options, to make it a public, private, "by invitation only," etc. You can also enter a list of "banned" users – those who are prevented automatically from accessing this channel. You can also set a limit to the number of users that can be in this channel at any given time.