Internet Services User's Guide

Contents

Logging In to the Internet Express System

You can log in to a captive account on an Internet Express system through a terminal server such as LAT or telnet, or through a terminal emulator on your PC.  To find out how to connect to your local system, contact your system administrator.

When you log in to a captive account on an Internet Express system, the Internet Express Menu is displayed:

To choose an option, enter the option number at the prompt.

On a PC, you can use a graphical browser (such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer), rather than the Lynx line-mode browser, to navigate the Web.

Using Mail (Pine and Pico)

Pine is an IMAP e-mail client that is easy to learn. Pico is the editor you use with Pine to compose messages (and with the TIN news reader to compose articles). Commands are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Using Pine and Pico, you can: When you access Pine, a main menu listing the tasks you can perform is displayed.

To choose a task, use the arrow keys to highlight the task, then press Enter; or enter the letter that corresponds to the task (for example, C stands for "Compose Message") at the prompt.

Note: If a command does not produce the results you expect, ensure that you are using the correct case.

Composing and Sending a Message

To compose and send an e-mail message, follow these steps:
  1. On the main menu, choose C (for "Compose Message").
  2. In the Pico editor, type the e-mail address of each intended recipient and press Enter.
  3. Type the subject of the message and press Enter.
  4. Type the message text.
  5. To send your message, press and hold the Ctrl and X keys, then release. Enter Y to confirm that you want to send the message. (To cancel, enter N.)

Selecting a Mail Folder

To select a folder containing messages you want to read, follow these steps:
  1. Enter L to see a listing of the current folders in your mail directory.
  2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the folder of your choice and press Enter.

Reading a Mail Message

To read a mail message, follow these steps:
  1. Select the folder containing the message you want to read. (Messages you have not yet read are in the INBOX folder.)
  2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the message from the listing and press Enter.
To navigate the message, use the following keys:
 
Arrow keys Move up or down one line at a time
Space bar Move to the next page
Hyphen (-) Move to the previous page

Replying to a Message

To reply to the current message, follow these steps:
  1. Enter R (for "Reply").
  2. Indicate whether you want to include the text of the original message in your reply by entering  Y or N.
  3. Enter the text of your reply using the Pico editor.
  4. To send your reply, press and hold the Ctrl and X keys, then release. Enter Y to confirm that you want to send the reply. (To cancel, enter N.)

Storing Messages in Folders

While you are reading a message, you can store it in a folder by entering S (for "Save"). Specify the name of the folder in which to store the message and press Enter.

Deleting a Message

To mark a message for deletion, highlight the message in the message list using the arrow keys and enter  D (for "Delete"). You can also use the D command while reading a message to mark it for deletion. (To unmark a message, enter U.) Then, enter X (for "eXpunge") to delete the marked messages. If any marked messages have not been expunged when you exit Pine, you will be prompted to expunge them.

Printing a Message

To print the message you are currently reading, enter Y (for "prYnt").

Exiting Mail

To exit the Pine e-mail client, enter  Q (for "Quit").

Using the TIN News Reader

A newsgroup is a public-access bulletin board where many people can participate in discussions or conversations on topics of mutual interest. Anyone with access to the newsgroup can read what other participants have written about the topics under discussion, and can post new topics or reply to previous topics.

Each posting is called an article. A thread of discussion consists of an initial article and any articles posted as follow-on articles to that topic.

The TIN news reader allows you to:

When you access the news reader, you see a listing of the newsgroups to which you currently subscribe. The first time you access the news reader, you are not a subscriber to any newsgroups.

Note: If a command does not produce the results you expect, ensure that you are using the correct case.

Listing TIN Commands

To see a listing of the TIN commands that are available at any given point, enter  h (for "help").

Listing Available Newsgroups

To see a listing of available newsgroups, enter y (for "yank"). The resulting listing indicates whether you are a subscriber to each newsgroup. If you are a subscriber to a newsgroup, an "s" appears next to the newsgroup name. If you are not a subscriber, a "u" appears.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing to Newsgroups

To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to a newsgroup, follow these steps:
  1. List the available newsgroups.
  2. Use the arrow keys to select the newsgroup.
  3. Enter s to subscribe (or u to unsubscribe).

Reading Articles in a Newsgroup

To read the articles in a newsgroup, follow these steps:
  1. Choose the newsgroup using the arrow keys and press Enter.
  2. From the chronological listing of threads of discussion in the newsgroup, use the arrow keys to highlight a topic article and press Enter.
To navigate the selected thread of discussion, use the following keys:
 
To perform this action: Press this key:
Page through a long article Space bar
Read the next article in the thread n
Read the next unread article in the thread N
Jump to the topic article for the next thread  Enter
Return to the chronological index i

You can read a particular reply by entering the reply number and pressing Enter to select the message. Then press Enter again to read the reply.

Posting an Article

To start a new thread of discussion, enter w (for "write").

To enter a reply to the current article, enter f (for "follow-on").

Type a subject at the prompt and press Enter.

Type the text of your article using the Pico editor.

Caution: Make sure you leave a blank line between the header ("References") and your message. Otherwise, your article will be rejected.

To exit from the Pico editor, follow these steps:

  1. Press and hold the Ctrl and X keys, then release.
  2. Save the buffer and press Enter to accept the default file name.
  3. Enter p (for "post") to add your article to the newsgroup or e (for "edit") to return to the Pine editor. To cancel the posting, enter a (for "abort").

Exiting the News Reader

To exit the TIN news reader, enter q (for "quit").

Using the WWW Line-Mode Browser

The Lynx line-mode browser allows you to navigate the World Wide Web (WWW) from a terminal. (If you have a PC or a workstation, you can also access the Web using a graphical browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.) The Internet Express home page is displayed by default. From the links on the default home page, you can visit Web sites of interest to Internet system administrators, and access the Internet Express documentation.

The Web consists of hypertext documents located all over the Internet, which are connected by links. Using these links, you can easily move from one document to another.

A link to another document is highlighted in the browser. When you follow a link, the highlighting changes so you can tell which links you have previously visited.
 

Navigating Web Pages

Once a Web page is displayed in the browser, use the following keys to navigate:
 
Down arrow Move forward to the highlight the next link on the current page
Up arrow Move back to highlight the previous link on the current page
Right arrow Visit the currently highlighted link
Left arrow Return to the most recently visited link
Space bar Move to the next screen

Exiting the WWW Line Mode Browser

To exit the WWW line-mode browser, enter q (for "quit"). You return to the Internet Express Menu.

Changing the Password for a Captive Account

To change the password for a captive account, choose item 4 from the Internet Express  Menu.  The system prompts you for your old password, then prompts you for the new password.  When prompted, retype the new password exactly.  The new password takes effect immediately.

To make a password more secure, make sure the password contains: