Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textfile/ncfinfo.zip/SURVIVE

Text File | 1993-10-30 | 79KB | 1,627 lines

                                                        31/05/93
       ABOUT THE SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR NEW USERS             aa331

This section of the National Capital FreeNet (NCF) menu is intended
to provide new users with some of the basic information that they
will need in order to understand the basic operation of NCF and how
to use it effectively.

There is one fundamental quandary in this on-line documentation;
how do you get logged onto NCF and access these instructions when
you do not know how to do that.  I trust that somehow through good
luck, or good guessing, you will succeed in getting that far on
your own.  Alternately, I hope that your friends will provide you
with sufficient guidance to get you that far.

This is a first attempt to pull together some basic information to
answer a variety of problems that new users have experienced since
the startup of NCF.  The first edition has had several revisions,
but it probably still suffers from missing information,
explanations that are not understandable, or even information that
is inaccurate.  All readers are invited to provide comments on any
such deficiency, or suggestions for improved organization or
enhancement of the information.  All such responses should be
forwarded by electronic mail.  They will be looked at seriously,
and acted upon wherever possible.  We are fortunate that this form
of documentation can be updated and disseminated much more rapidly
than is the case with the printed page.

The on-line versions of many of the files in this Guide were
changed on May 31, 1993.  These changes reflect a number of
comments received by Email, and many more that have come from the
comments contained in the ncf.admin discussion group.  User
concerns will continue to be monitored, and further updates will be
added in the future.  I thank everyone involved for their help.

The Guide now makes use of a modified pager that has been provided
by Ian Allen, aa610.  The pager is the software that displays a
particular file in response to a menu selection.  Normally, there
is a separate information file for each menu item.  The new pager
permits a menu item to select a sub-section within a larger file.

As a result of this change, there are several points that users of
the Guide should be aware of.  First, if you want to download and
print your own copy of this document, you should give the command
"nopage", set up your terminal emulator to capture to a file, and
then select the first menu item.  The whole document will then
scroll past on your screen without breaks while the text is
captured to the file on your machine.  You may then edit this file
to meet your needs, and print it.  In addition, once you start
paged reading at any point in the file, you will find that you can
continue reading into subsequent sections.  When you have read
enough, escape with the "q" command.  You may also page backwards
using the "b" command, and it is possible to read into the previous
section.

One IMPORTANT convention used in this guide should be noted before
starting.  When a specific string of characters is required for a
command or similar purpose it is always shown between quotation
marks.  That means enter the exact characters between the quotes:
do not add spaces, and do not change from upper case to lower case,
or visa versa.  Also, do not include the quotes in the command
string.  For example, in the Logging On section it is indicated
that "guest" may be used to log in if you are not a registered
user.  If that option is used, your log in line must read as below:

                     login: guest


The point needs to be made that the information in this menu is
intended to meet only the essential needs of a new user.  When you
have mastered what is contained here, you should be reasonably
proficient in using all of the services of FreeNet, and should
avoid the pitfalls that can discourage the uninitiated.  If you
want to progress into some of the more advanced features of
FreeNet, there is additional on-line documentation in the Help
section of the main menu.  This Guide contains a summary of the
topics covered in the Help system.

I wish you the best of success in your exploration of NCF, and hope
that you find the information and services provided by NCF to be
interesting, useful and enjoyable.


Regards - Al Seaman,   aa331





<2>                                                      18/02/93
                         MODEM SETUP                       aa331

In order for two computers to communicate via the telephone system,
it is necessary that each be equipped with a device called a MODEM
(MOdulator/DEModulator).  The modem accepts digital signals from
the transmitting computer, converts these tones in the audio range
that are coded to represent the original digital data.  At the
receive end, the tones are converted back to the original digital
form and passed on to the receiving computer.  Each modem actually
contains both a send and receive channel so there can be a
continuous and simultaneous passing of information in both
directions between the two computers.

For that communication process to work, it is ESSENTIAL that both
modems be compatible; that they use identical conventions for
signalling tones, data representation and data transmission rates
(baud rate).  Fortunately, industry standards have established most
of the details required for compatibility, and users are left to
decide only a few main functions.  Two main categories of modem
exist: (1) asynchronous modems, designed to move one character at
a time, and (2) synchronous modems, designed to move a block of
characters in a continuous high speed burst.

For purposes of connecting to the NCF, our modems are standard
ASYNCHRONOUS modems that will operate at speeds of 1200 or 2400
baud rates.  Your modem should be compatible (the manual may quote
standards such as CCITT V.22bis, or Hayes compatible) and it should
be set to either of the above speeds.  If you have a choice, select
2400 baud since it will move data between the computers more
quickly.  It will also be necessary to set the data format.  Please
use 8 data bits, no parity, and one stop bit.  Data rate and data
format can usually be set by switches on the modem, or through
software commands.  Please consult the manuals for your equipment
for guidance on how to do this.

It must be noted that there are many varieties of modems on the
market, some of which can switch to much higher speeds, and may
support sophisticated features such as automatic error correction.
These features are NOT supported by NCF.  It is the responsibility
of the user to read the manuals provided with your equipment, and
to ensure that such features are turned off.  The communication
software driving your modem generally provides the means of
controlling these features.





<3>                                                       12/02/93
                          TERMINAL SETUP                    aa331

At the user end of a connection with NCF, the user needs a minimum
of a basic computer terminal (a number of different models are on
the market).  More commonly today, people use a variety of personal
computers (IBM PC or clone, MacIntosh, etc.) along with a software
package that makes the computer emulate, or act like a particular
model of computer terminal.

Some of the more common terminal types are VT52, VT100, ANSI, or
Wyse.  You may be using one of these, or even a "dumb" terminal.
This latter designation applies to a very simple terminal that
operates like a teletype; it accepts characters from the keyboard,
displays characters on the printer or screen, and does no other
tricks.  NCF can work with any of these devices.  If you have a
choice, the VT100 is the recommended terminal.

If you are using a computer with terminal emulator, it is
recommended that you set it to emulate a VT100 terminal.  That will
provide you with some features not available on the dumb terminal,
and will give you the most compatible and most effective way of
using the services provided by NCF.  If VT100 is not available,
select ANSI as a good second choice.  Selection of the emulation
mode is controlled by your software - please read your manual for
the details that apply to your system.

In addition, there are a couple of other things that should be set
whether you are using a terminal or a computer with emulation
software.  The "local echo" should be turned off, and the option to
convert "carriage returns" to "carriage return + line feed" should
also be turned off.  These can be accommodated by switches or
software commands; again, consult your manuals.




<4>                                                       23/09/93
                            LOGGING ON                      aa331

Having got your modem and terminal set up properly, the next step
is to try logging on.

The telephone number to use for NCF is 780-3733.  That may require
manual dialling on older equipment, but more likely you will be
able to set up the telephone number in a dialling directory and
have the modem dial the number automatically.  Consult the manuals
for your hardware and software.

Currently, we have sixty-nine telephone lines available, and when the
NCF number is dialled the first free line in the block of sixty-nine
will be selected automatically, and will answer your call.  We had,
in April, caught up with demand.  There are now over 9000
registered users, plus an unknown but large number of guest users,
all contending for this limited number of lines.  The result can be
busy signals at peak times.  The only advice right now is "If at
first you don't succeed, try, try again".  More lines will be added
from time to time as we attempt to find the right balance between
user demands and available money to pay for lines.  Off-peak hours
are always recommended if your schedule permits this.

If your terminal emulation software supports automatic redialling,
it is suggested that you use that mode.  If the lines are busy, the
software will make the modem hang up, and dial again, and continue
to repeat this cycle until there is a connection.  In doing this,
be aware that there are at least two methods of doing auto-redial
in available software packages.  Some can detect a true busy
signal, and will initiate the redial only when the busy signal
occurs.  That is fine.  Other software packages may not detect the
busy signal, but simply time out if a connection, including modem
hand-shaking, is not completed within a defined period.  If your
software operates that way, make sure the time-out period before
redialling is set to 20 seconds or more.

Shortly after the NCF line answers, you should hear a high pitched
tone in the monitor speaker of the modem.  This is a good sign.
After that, you should hear a harsher squawk as the two modems
begin a "handshaking" process to sort out who is doing what, and
get synchronized.  Once that is complete, the speaker should go
silent, and some indication that a connection has been made should
appear on your screen.  Again, a good sign.

The next step is to enter several carriage returns; generally three
are required, but five or more may be needed on occasion.  This is
so that the NCF modem can verify your character format and baud
rate.  If your baud rate is 300, 1200 or 2400, the NCF modem will
switch to the right speed automatically, and you will get a
response on your screen in cryptic computerese.  Ignore that.  In
a moment or two you will see the message:

          login:

At that point, enter either "guest" or your login ID.  Be sure to
use lower case for "guest", or the prefix characters on the ID.  If
you make a mistake, don't try to delete the error and correct it -
it won't be accepted.  Simply give a carriage return, and after
getting a fresh login prompt, try again.

If you entered other than guest, you will see another prompt:

          password:

At this point enter your password.  Type carefully, and duplicate
exactly the sequence of upper/lower case and special characters
that are in your password.  Since these characters are not echoed
you will not see them on the screen, and will not be sure about
errors.  If you fail the password, the login and password prompts
will appear again.  If you succeed, you should see the NCF logo,
the message of the day, then the NCF main menu.  Note that if you
logged on as "guest", a password is not required, and the password
prompt will not appear.

Note that everyone, whether guest or registered user, has a maximum
allotment of 60 minutes of log on time.  Five minutes before it
elapses, a warning will appear that you should finish up and log
off.  Failure to heed this warning may result in you being shut
down in the middle of something.  Once off, you are at liberty to
queue up and try logging in again.  To know where you stand on time
used up, you may enter the "time" command at any time.  Time used
and remaining will be displayed.




<5>                                                       31/05/93
                       NAVIGATING MENUS                     aa331

Once you get to the main menu, you are ready to follow your
instincts and/or desires and look for the information that is of
interest to you.  Each menu lists a variety of subjects, one
subject per line, with a sequential number at the beginning of each
line.  At the bottom of the menu is a command line that starts with
the prompt:

Your Choice ==>

Enter the number of the desired topic, then a carriage return.  The
system will then respond with the requested selection.  In looking
at a menu line, there are some conventions that will indicate what
should happen if that line is selected.

Selecting a line that just has a topic and no suffix should result
in the display of an information file.  It will be displayed one
screen full (page) at a time, with the prompt to enter a space to
see the next screen. (If it scrolls to the end of a long data file
without stopping, it usually indicates an error in your NCF setup.
Please refer to the FreeNet Setup section).  If you don't want to
see all of a long file displayed, you may enter a "q" to exit from
it.

There may be times when you want an information file to be
displayed without paging.  For instance, if you want to capture or
log it to a file on your own computer.  In such cases, enter
"nopage" on the command line, set your computer to capture mode,
then select the desired information file.  This will avoid having
page breaks embedded in your file.  When you are finished enter the
command "page" to restore the normal paged display of information.

Selecting a line that has "..." after the subject should result in
the display of a sub-menu that will give you further choices of
subject material.  This process of following subject headings can
proceed forward through many successive menus until you find
exactly what you want.

Selecting a line that has ">>>" after the subject should result in
a transfer to a discussion group or newsgroup under control of the
newsreader.  This is covered more fully in the Using Discussion &
News Groups section.

At any point you may back up one level in the menu system by
entering "p", or you can return to the main menu by entering "m".

In addition to stepping through the menus to find a topic, there
are some direct access commands that will get you immediately to
some items in one step.  These include:

COMMAND            SUBJECT

go admin         Administration menu
go config        Set Environment Parameters menu
go directory     Directory Services menu
go editor        Set Your Editor menu
go files         File Transfer Services menu
go password      User Services menu
go survival      Survival Guide for New Users menu
mail             entry to mail reader
send             entry to send mail
who              display of who is logged on the system
time             displays time remaining in your session

Note that any of these commands may be entered on the command line
regardless of how deep you are in the menu structure.  After
getting to the desired point with such a command, the "p" command
can then return you to your original starting point in the menu
structure in one step.

To see the full list of available "go" commands simply enter "go"
on the command line.  To see the full list of other commands (not
the "go" commands), go to the main Help menu and select 3 - Help
with the FreePort Menu System, then select 1 - Help with Menu
Commands.




<6>                                                       19/08/93
                         FREENET SETUP                      aa331

Having got logged on, and having found out how to get around, the
next step is to ensure that NCF is set up to match the
characteristics of your terminal or terminal emulator.

First, at the command line, enter "go config".  This will get you
to the Set Environment Parameters menu from which you can select
the appropriate items.

Next, select item 2 - Set Your Default Editor.  There are three
choices here: 1 - Pico, 2 - Chet's Editor, and 3 - No editor.  The
last choice is a little confusing.  To do some things such as
editing files in your work directory you must select 1 or 2 first.
However, for preparing mail messages, no editor is an acceptable
choice.  The mail system has a very simple editor built in, and it
will be used unless one of the other editors is selected.  If you
are using a terminal with very limited capability, the no editor
choice may be your only workable option.

If you have a more capable terminal (VT100 for instance), it is
recommended that you select item 1 - Pico (a simple editor).  This
is a quite straight forward text editor that does automatic word
wrapping at the end of a line, moves the cursor with the arrow
keys, and has a small menu at the bottom of the edit screen that
displays the available commands.  Note that the ^ symbol in the
Pico commands means the control key, i.e., ^K to delete a line
means hold down control then press the K key.

Chet's Editor is also available, which has many more features, but
also takes a lot more learning before one becomes a proficient
user.  More information on how to use Chet's Editor may be found in
the main Help menu under item 4 - Help with Editors.  For most
users, Pico is a good first choice.  You will need the editor any
time you prepare a mail message, or a posting to a discussion
group, or edit files in your working directory.

It should be noted, that if you want to use Pico or Chet's Editor
you MUST have an intelligent terminal such as a VT-100, or use your
terminal emulator software in VT-100 mode.  These editors will NOT
work with a basic teletype or similar terminal.  For such a basic
terminal you must stick with the simple default editor (i.e. the No
Editor choice), which is, unfortunately, a bit of a pain to use.

After setting your Editor, return to the Set Environment Parameters
menu and select item 3 - Set Your Terminal Type.  If you are using
a real computer terminal, find the type on the displayed terminal
list that matches what you are using, and select it.  If you are
using a computer with emulator software that has been set to VT-100
as recommended, then select vt-100 from this menu.  If for any
reason your emulator is not set for VT-100, then select something
from the menu that matches the emulator.  It is important that your
terminal and NCF be in agreement.

It should also be noted that when running some programs on NCF,
Pico and Chet's editor for instance, you do need more than a basic
terminal.  If the program requirements exceed the capability of the
terminal that you have set up, you will see the diagnostic
"Incomplete Termcap Entry".

Return again to the Set Environment Parameters menu and select item
4 - Set Terminal Characteristics.  Most of the default settings
should be right for your use, so it recommended that you do not
change most of these parameters.  The exception is that you should
select 6 - Set your Character Erase Key to "Backspace".  This will
ensure that the left arrow key on the upper right side of your
keyboard operates as a "backspace and delete" key, i.e. the cursor
moves one space left, and the character that was there is deleted.

Finally, return the Set Environment Parameters menu again and
select item 6 - Save Your Environment Parameters menu.  It is
IMPORTANT to do this since it will ensure that the various
selections that you have made are saved permanently in your
environment file, and are activated every time you log on.  You can
then exit to the main menu.

It must be emphasized that the settings that you make on your local
equipment (terminal or terminal emulator software) such as terminal
type, delete character, etc., MUST EXACTLY MATCH the settings used
in your FreeNet setup.  Failure to do this can lead to very erratic
behaviour of your screen output.

If you have doubt as to your terminal settings at any time, you can
get an immediate display of all current setting by entering the
command "printenv" on the command line.  A typical display, showing
the recommended settings is below:

                  Terminal Type = vt100
              Number of Columns = 80
                 Number of Rows = 24
                  Editor to Use = /files/freenet/rootdir/bin/apico
            Character Erase Key = BACKSPACE
          Command Interrupt Key = CTRL-C
            Don't Use the Pager = OFF
 Don't Pause After Each Message = OFF
    Don't Confirm Exit Requests = OFF
               Don't Show Menus = OFF
                    CBREAK Mode = OFF






<7>                                                       12/02/93
                       CHANGING PASSWORDS                   aa331

For the security of the information in your files, it is important
that the password that you log into NCF with is known only to you,
so that no one else can enter your account.  To ensure security of
a password, it should be at least 6 to 8 characters in length, it
should not be a dictionary word or the name of a person or city,
and it should be a mix of upper and lower case alphabetic
characters and numerals.  It should also be changed frequently;
every 2 or 3 months is probably not a bad guideline.

In particular, when you submitted your registration form for a user
account on NCF, that form carried a temporary password.  It is
obviously known to other people, and it should be changed as soon
as possible after you start using your new account.

To change a password, at the command line, enter "go password".
That will take you to the User Services menu.  Select 4 - Change
Your Password, then follow the instructions.  It will first ask for
the old password just to verify that it is you, then ask for a new
password, then ask for the new one again just to verify that it has
been validly entered.  No characters will be echoed during this
process, so you cannot see what you are doing.  Therefore, do it
carefully.  Once changed, please remember the new password.




<8>                                                       28/03/93
                       DIRECTORY SERVICES                   aa331

There are a number of useful things in the category of "directory
services" that new users should know about.  The Directory Services
menu can be accessed by using the command "go directory", through
item 9 of the Post Office menu, or through item 5 of the
Communications menu.  Once there you will find a menu that offers:
    1 Get Detailed User Information
    2 Look-up Users by Full Name
    3 Access the User Database...
    4 Allow access to logon/mail-read times
    5 Deny access to logon/mail-read times

The uses of each of these options will be summarized below.


1 - Get Detailed User Information

This option allows you to display the name of the person, and some
other optional information, associated with a particular user ID.
You will be asked to enter the desired user ID, and the system will
respond with the person's name, possibly an indication of when that
person last logged onto NCF (see 4/5 below), and possibly some
information about the persons interests and affiliations (see 3
below).  This option is of use when you have the user ID of
someone, and you want to find out who they are, and possibly some
of the optional information about them.  It is important to note
that this option is case sensitive, e.g., if you are looking for
aa331, then enter exactly that and not AA331.


2 - Look-up Users by Full Name

This is primarily for use when you know a person's name, and want
to find out their user ID, possibly in order to send them an Email
message.  You will be asked to enter the name, and then the system
will respond with the name and the corresponding user ID.

The use of "Full Name" in this option is perhaps a misnomer, since
you do not actually have to use the full name, and the search is
also not case sensitive.  For instance, if the search name entered
was "sea", the system will return with anyone having surnames like
Seaman, Searle or Seaton, as well as anyone having first names like
Sean, or indeed, anyone who has the three character sequence "sea"
anywhere in their name.

Such a search will yield a list of all names that match the search
string, and in each case, the full name and user ID will be given.
This can be very useful if you are not quite sure of the exact
spelling of a person's name.


3 - Access the User Database

This option brings you to a second menu that tells you more about
the users database, and allows you to add or edit your personal
information in the database, or to query the database for
particular user information.

For instance, if you want to find everyone who has indicated an
interest in photography, initiate a search of the interest database
with a search string of "photography", and you will get the
complete information on everyone who has included photography in
their interest file.  The same applies to the affiliation file
which can list the person's employer, and clubs and organizations
that the person belongs to.  This facility can be quite useful if
you want to set up a special interest group, or organize an event
that will appeal to a particular interest.

For the database functions to be useful, the information for many
users must first be in the database.  You are encouraged put your
own information in the file using the Edit your database option.
You may be surprised to find new people that share your interests.
It must be stressed, however, that this is strictly voluntary.  If
you wish to remain private and undisturbed, then put no information
in your file.


4/5 Allow/Deny access to logon/mail-read times

These two options allow you to turn on, or turn off the option that
allows the display, under item 1 above, of the last time that you
logged onto NCF, and the last time that you read your mail
messages.  This can be useful to other people who may have sent you
a mail message (possibly of some importance).  The next time they
are on NCF, they can check to see if you have logged in and
probably read that message.

It is a nice courtesy to other people to turn this option on.  On
the other hand, this is strictly voluntary, and if you wish to
remain private then turn it off.




<9>                                                       23/09/93
                       GETTING AN ACCOUNT                   aa331

Anyone can log onto the NCF as a "guest" and have access to any of
the information in the menu system.  Guests, however, do have some
restrictions; they cannot send and receive electronic mail, and
they cannot post anything to a discussion group or news group.  In
order to have full access to all of the NCF information and
services you must become a registered user.

The process of getting registered is quite simple.  The essential feature
is that you must sign an agreement that you will abide by the normal rules
of conduct for NCF, provide some details to identify yourself, and mail
(Canada Post) the forms to the NCF office.  In addition, you will be asked
to enter name, password and related information on-line.  Full details of
the process, and the forms, are available on-line, and may be found under
the Administration menu, item 4 - Getting an Account.  Please remember the
EXACT temporary password that you used for registration.

After mailing your form, you should log on to NCF periodically as
a guest, then go to Directory Services and check to see if your
name is listed.  If it is, your newly assigned account ID will
appear with it.  You can then try logging on with the new account
ID, and the temporary password that you provided previously.  Be
sure to duplicate the EXACT upper case/lower case character and
numeral sequence that you provided or it will not be accepted.  If
you fail complete a logon with your new account after a number of
times, please call the NCF office at [phone] for further
assistance.

If you experience any problems with your new account you may send a three
line message directly to the Registrar using Item 6 on the Registration
menu.  Instructions for using that service are given under menu Item 5.




<m1>                                                      28/03/93
                      USING THE MAIL SYSTEM                 aa331

                          INTRODUCTION

The electronic mail system of NCF can be a very powerful service
that will keep you in touch with a potentially very large group of
people.  You can exchange mail with any registered NCF user, and in
addition can exchange mail with any user of a computer that is
connected to any network linked by the worldwide network of
networks called the internet.  There are now over a million
computers on the internet, so your Email horizons are certainly
very broad.

With that many connected computers, clearly mail addressing has to
be right in order to get a message to the right person.  The system
has evolved over the years, and has become quite flexible, yet
relatively simple and easy to use.  A typical address incorporates
country codes, network codes, institution codes, computer names and
user ID's.  For instance, my internet address is:

              [e-mail]

In this, "ca" is the country code for Canada, "carleton" is the
code for Carleton University, "freenet" is the name for the NCF
computer and aa331 is my user ID.  A message with that address put
on the internet, anywhere in the world, will very quickly end up in
my mailbox on the NCF computer.  For mail exchanged between NCF
users, simpler addressing is possible, and only the user ID (i.e.
aa331) is required.

For mail between NCF users, getting the address right is trivial,
since the user ID's available through the Directory Services menu
will quickly tell you what is right.  In the case of internet
addresses, it is not so simple since a comprehensive address
directory does not exist.  Getting the address of a person may
involve an exchange of letter mail or a telephone call.

If you receive internet mail, the reply is simple since the message
will carry the return address of the sender.  Also, when you
originate mail on NCF, your correct internet address is entered
automatically in the From: header.  It should be noted that if you
send internet mail with an invalid address, at some point it will
be determined that the address does not exist, and the message will
be sent back to you with a note indicating where the delivery
failure occurred in the internet.




<m2>                                                      29/03/93
                      USING THE MAIL SYSTEM                 aa331

                          SENDING MAIL

When you want to send mail go to the Post Office menu option 3.
Once selected, it will lead you through the process of creating a
mail message, then the step of sending it.

First, you will be asked to verify that you want to send mail
(answer "y"), then you will be asked for the address of the person
or persons to receive the message.  Here you can reply with one
address, or with several addresses with a comma separating each.
Also note that the address can be in the simple NCF form (e.g.,
aa331) if it is for a local user, or in the full internet form if
it is for an external user.  If NCF ID's were used, the system will
respond with the full names and ask that you confirm that they are
correct.  In the case of internet addresses, since NCF has no
knowledge of who they are, you will get an indication that the
addressee is unknown, and you will be asked to confirm that this is
OK anyway.

Next you will be asked for a message subject.  Here you should
enter a brief (half a dozen words or so) indication of what the
message is about, with a minimum of ambiguity.  For instance use
"My holiday plans for March" instead of just "Holidays".  That
title is important because it will be used to identify your message
subject in the receiver's list of mail messages, and it will be
automatically used in any subsequent reply to your message.

Having got through the preliminaries, you will then be presented
with an editor screen showing the header of your message.  You
should be warned that if you have not selected an editor (see the
section on FreeNet Setup), you will be using the default editor
which is very rudimentary, and a pain to use.  You may edit the
contents of the header if the need for a change of address or
subject comes to mind.  Do not however modify the format of the
header, or individual line heading (To:, Subject:, Cc:, etc).

Another point that should be made about sending mail is that the
system does not automatically save you a copy of the messages that
you send.  If you want to save a copy of anything, be sure to enter
your user ID in the Cc: portion of the message header.

The next step is to move the cursor down to the space below the
header and to enter the text of the message.  This portion is free
form, and you can use it in any way that gets your message across.
The only constraint is that you are using vanilla flavoured acsii
text (standard keyboard characters, 80 characters per line).  When
the text is finished, exit from the editor (control-x in the case
of pico, control-x,control-c in the case of Chet's editor).

At this point you have several options.  The most important are
reading it over and checking it, editing it further, cancelling it,
or sending it.  Be sure that it is right before you send it, since
there is no way of getting it back or cancelling it once it has
been sent.




<m3>                                                      29/03/93
                      USING THE MAIL SYSTEM                 aa331

                         RECEIVING MAIL

If mail is waiting for you at any time, you will see the note "You
have new mail" displayed at the bottom of any menu screen.  To read
it simply enter "mail" on the command line.  Alternately, you can
go to the Post Office menu and select 2 - Check Your mail.  The
mail reader will be started, and you will see a list of your mail
messages.  The subject of each message will be listed, along with
a sequential number.  At the left there will also be some
additional codes; N for a new, unread message, R for a message that
has been read, A for a message that has been answered, and D for a
message that has been flagged for deletion.  A "*" character will
also appear with the currently active message; that is, the message
that is selected for reading, answering or deleting.  You may step
through the mail list by entering a "-" to go backward, or "=" to
go forward.

There are many commands that can be used with the mail reader, and
it is suggested that you enter the "h" command to get the full list
displayed.  Some of the more useful ones are listed below:

   t - Type out the current mail message
   n - read the Next unread mail message
   v - View the next mail message, read or unread
   b - Back up and read the previous message
   j - Jump to a message and make that message the current one
   d - Delete the current message from your mailbox
   r - send a Reply back to the author of the current message
   T - like "t" but don't page the message
   N - like "n" but don't page the message
   V - like "v" but don't page the message
   > - save the current message to a file in your work directory

In addition, you can always read a particular message by entering
the number assigned to the message.  Doing this will also position
the "*" to that message, making it the active message.  You may
also reposition the "*" to a new message without reading the
message by using the "j" command.

A commonly asked question is how can I transfer mail to a file on
my own computer.  There are two possible approaches.  The easiest
is probably to use the capture or logging option that is built in
to most terminal emulator packages.  Position the "*" so the
desired message is the active one, then turn on the capture option.
Read through the message, or group of messages, using the T, N and
V commands, and finally turn off the capture option.  At a later
time, you can edit the capture file off-line to separate messages
and delete any extraneous material between messages.  It should be
noted that using the T, N, and V commands will avoid having to edit
out the page breaks that normally would occur with every screen-
full of information.

The second method is to use the ">" command to save the desired
messages to files in your work directory.  Subsequently, you can go
to the File Transfer Service menu and do a download of the saved
files to your computer.  This is described more fully in the Using
the File System section of this guide.

The "r" command is very useful for doing an immediate reply to the
active message.  When selected, this will immediately set up a
draft message to the senders address, with the subject heading
reading "Re: (the original wording of the senders subject)", and
will enter the original text of the senders message into the editor
screen.  Note that this will only work if you have previously
selected an editor as explained in the FreeNet Setup section.

On the editor screen, each line of the original text will be
preceded by a ">" character to indicate it is a quote from the
original message.  Then go through the text and delete the lines
that need no comment, leaving only what is relevant to your reply.
Finally, put your responses below each of the quoted sections that
remain.  It is a very quick and concise way of putting a reply
together, and it lets the original message sender know what points
you are following up on, and what your views are on these specific
issues.  Once the reply message has been prepared, exit from the
editor.

At this point you have the same options available that were
discussed earlier under Sending a Message, that is, reading over,
editing or sending.  Be sure that it is right before you send it
since there is no getting it back once sent.



<m4>                                                      29/03/93
                      USING THE MAIL SYSTEM                 aa331

                     ADDITIONAL MAIL OPTIONS

a) The Alias File

You may send mail to a number of individuals, or to groups of
individuals frequently, and find that it is inconvenient and error
prone to have to look up and type in the obscure mail addresses
required.  The Alias file is the answer to your problem.  You may
set up your Alias file by going to the Post Office menu and
selecting item 7 Edit your personal aliases file.

In each entry in this file, you can assign an easy to remember
"nick-name" to the individual or group, a colon, and then the exact
email address or addresses that correspond.  The address list for
a nick-name may span several lines provided that the first
character of the second and subsequent lines is a space or tab
character.  When preparing a mail message, you can enter the alias
in place of the real address, and the system will look up the alias
then plug in the valid Email addresses automatically.

An example of an alias file might look like the following:

sam: aa331
zeke: [e-mail]
the_gang: aa331, [e-mail],
 [e-mail], [e-mail]
joe: [e-mail]

A point for caution: if you leave a partially edited alias file
that contains corrupted information, you may find that you cannot
send mail at all.  If this should happen, clean up the file.

b) Your Signature File

Use of your signature file is a quick way to automatically add a
standard end to every mail message or discussion group posting just
before it is sent.  To set it up, go to the Post Office menu and
select item 6 - Edit your signature file.

You will then see an edit screen (you must have an editor
previously selected), and then you can type in up to four lines of
ascii text.  Your full name and user ID are suggested, along with
anything else that is pertinent.  It is suggested that you try to
keep it short.

c) Forwarding Mail

There may be occasions when you receive a mail message which you
want to pass on to a third party.  While still in the mail reader,
you can issue the "f" command.  You will be asked for the address
or addresses to which the message is to be forwarded.  Then
automatically, the necessary mail header will be prepared with a
forwarded mail subject, and the message to be forwarded will be
incorporated in the body of the new message.  You may then send it
immediately.  You may also append some explanatory notes at the
bottom if wish before sending.  (See the next section.)

d) Appending New Text to a Message

There may be occasions when you want to quickly add something to
the end of a mail message that you have prepared and read over.
The mail preparation menu Item 4 - Append to the message gives you
this option.  When selected, you enter the edit screen of the
simple mail editor (not the editor that you may have selected under
setup), and you can put together a message that will be added to
the end of the current message.  Note that you tell this editor to
end the appended text with a new line containing only "###" and a
return.  If it is a short addition, and you want it on the end of
a message, you can do it faster with append than by selection the
item 5 - Edit the Message option.

e) Appending a File to a Message

There may be occasions when you want to add a file from your work
directory to a mail message.  The file may have been uploaded from
your PC, it may have come as a file transfer from someone else, or
it may have originated as a mail message that you have put in your
work directory.  The first step is to create the mail message
header in the usual way.  If you want to have some introductory
text prior to the file, add that to the message body, then exit
from the editor.  On the mail preparation menu select item 8 -
Append a File to the Message.  You will then be asked for the name
of the file.  If you give the proper name for a file that exist in
your work directory, it will then be appended to the message, and
you will be returned to the mail preparation menu.  At this point
you can read, edit, append further, or send the message.

Two cautions need to be stated.  File appending will only work for
a text file (i.e. don't try this with a binary file).

In addition, do not try to append a raw mail message file in the
form that it was saved using the mail reader ">" command.  Before
appending a mail file, go to the File Services menu (see next
section on Using the File System) and edit the message header of
this file.  Remove at least the top part that contains a lot of
system specific information used by the mail transport system.  You
may leave the last portion of the header as displayed on a message
screen.  Failure to do this editing will result in the receipt of
your new message header without the appended file in the message
body, and the appended file will arrive as a second message having
its original mail header.  This is guaranteed to confuse the
recipient.



<11>                                                      28/08/93
                    USING THE FILE SYSTEM                   aa331

Every user has a file storage area, termed his work directory,
which can be used for the temporary storage of information.  This
work directory can be used to edit files, to save and retrieve
Email messages and newsgroup articles, to transfer files between
NCF and a user's PC, and it is also possible to send files to other
users or retrieve files from them.

In using these file handling facilities, two important points
should be observed.  First, NCF does not condone the use of our
facilities for illegal or illicit activities such as the exchange
of licensed and/or copyrighted information or software.  User
violating this principle will be permanently removed from the
system.  In addition, please note that the working file area is
only for temporary storage of information.  Please remove old files
when they are no longer needed.  The total NCF disk space is more
than adequate for all current demands, and we have not had to
implement any file limitation measures.  However, when the user
load increases we may routinely purge all user work storage without
warning on a weekly or even daily basis if required.

To gain access to the file facilities, use the command "go xfer"
or, at the Main Menu select 13 - Communications, then select 6 -
File Transfer Services.

In addition to the transfer of files, there are some operations on
files that can be done using the item 8 - Manipulate Files option
in the File Transfer Services menu.  When selected, you will see
the Manipulate Files menu that lets you do a number of operations
(for the most part self-explanatory) on the files in your work
directory.  The list of files will show you the names of all files
in your directory.  It will also indicate that there are no files
in the directory if that is the case.  The other operations;
delete, rename, copy, Display with paging, and type without paging,
all do just what they say.  If each case you will be prompted for
the name of a file, and after the operation is completed on that
one file, you are returned to the Manipulate Files menu.

In the case of editing files, there are two options in the
Manipulate Files menu:

  8 Edit a file

     In this case, the file that you designate will come up on the
     edit screen of the editor that you have selected in your NCF
     setup.  (You must previously select an editor for this option
     to work.)  The details of using Pico or Chet's Editor were
     discussed earlier in this Survival Guide, and more details can
     be found in the Help System, item 14 of the main menu.

  9 Edit your "work" directory (dired)

     When selected, this enables you to do some more flexible
     operations on the files in your work directory using DIRED, a
     DIRectory EDitor.  It will display a list of your files, then
     by moving the cursor you can select any file, and operate on
     it using a defined list of commands.  It is a little more
     flexible than the one file at a time approach of the other
     Manipulate Files menu commands.  However, it is a more
     sophisticated tool, and some study and practice are required.
     You will find more details on DIRED in the Help System, item
     14 of the main menu, or you may also enter an "h" command from
     within DIRED.


Items 3 and 4 in the File Transfer Services menu provide probably
the most useful file service; the exchange of files between NCF and
your personal computer.

In order for a computer-to-computer file transfer to work, there
must be similar software on each computer.  The software operates
according to a defined set of rules, called a protocol, that
determine the file identification, identification of the start and
end of a file, the transmitted data block size, error detection
features like check sums, acknowledgement of good blocks received,
and the retransmission of blocks received with errors.  There are
many different protocols available commercially, and there must be
agreement as to which one will be used for a given transfer.

The NCF-PC file transfer menus mention four different file transfer
protocols, Kermit, Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem (all of which are usually
supported by most terminal emulator programs).  The latter three have been
recently installed, and although thoroughly tested before installation,
they may experience trouble under some conditions.  Instructions for
problem reporting are included in the menu.  Older versions of all four
protocols are also available in the Toolbox (go toolbox), but these
versions are not supported, and are known to fail for some users.  They
are there on a use-at-your-own-risk basis, and should only be resorted to
if the versions in the File Transfer menu do not work for you.

For a Kermit transfer from NCF to your PC, select item 3 on the File
Transfer menu, then select item 1 - KERMIT.  You will then be asked
to enter the name of the file that you want to transfer (it must be
the name of a file that exists in your working directory - enter 5
to get a list of your files.)  Then you will be asked to escape to
your terminal emulator and start up KERMIT on your PC.  The details
of this operation are unique to each terminal emulator program, and
you will need to consult your manuals as to how to do this for your
machine.  Once initiated, you should see an indication that the
transfer has started, then a continuing report on its progress.
Finally on completion of the transfer, control should return to the
NCF Send File menu.

For a Kermit transfer from your PC to NCF, select item 4 on the File
Transfer menu, then select item 1 - KERMIT.  This will work very
much like the previous operation, except that the file name will be
identified this time at the PC end of the transmission.  With
KERMIT it is normally the sending end that identifies the name of
the file to be sent, and the file will appear in the file directory
of the receiving machine with the original name duplicated.

If the file transfer fails to start, or it does not run properly,
in either of the above cases, it generally means that there is a
discrepancy in the setup of your terminal emulator and NCF, or that
there is an incompatibility in the particular version of KERMIT
that you are using.  First go through the setup procedures outlined
in sections 3 and 6 of this Survival Guide.  If that does not cure
the problem it is suggested that you check with other users to see
if anyone is aware of problems with your version of KERMIT.

The above explanation was specific to Kermit, but is generally applicable
to Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem, with some exceptions.  The version of Kermit
on NCF must be used with text files only.  In the case of the other three
protocols, both binary and text transfers are supported, and as part of
the initiation sequence, you will be asked to specify the transfer mode
desired.  In general, text files are those containing plain ascii text
characters.  Binary files are those that contain executable software
programs, or files with special codes such as WordPerfect files.  In
addition, with Xmodem it is necessary to specify the name of the file at
both the sending and receiving end.

Files from your working directory may be sent to another NCF user
by appending them to a mail message addressed to that user through
the use of the append command in the Mail system.  Such appended
files should be normal ascii text files.

Alternately, you can use the File Transfer Services item 7 - Send
a file to another user.  When selected, you will be asked for the
name of the file to be transferred, a short descriptive statement
about the file, and the user ID of the recipient.  The system will
then send an Email message to the recipient containing the name and
description of the file transferred, and a notation that it can be
picked up by entering the command "go ups".  After entering that
command, then confirming that reception of the file is desired, the
file will be placed in the recipient's working directory.  Option
5 and 6 on the File Transfer Services menu may also be used to
check for and retrieve files sent in this manner.  Any form of file
may be transferred in this file transfer method.




<12>                                                      29/03/93
               USING DISCUSSION AND NEWS GROUPS             aa331

Much of the interesting information available on NCF comes in the
form of Discussion Groups or on Usenet News Groups.  The first,
Discussion Groups appear in many different places in the NCF menus
and represent questions, answers and comments posted in NCF files
by registered NCF users.  The second is similar in concept, but is
global in scope, and represents the combined inputs of many people
scattered over the whole internet.

Within the various NCF menus, a local discussion group will appear
with an appropriate descriptive title which ends with the notation
">>>".  To get to Usenet News, go to the Communication menu and
select item 4 - Read Usenet News >>>.  It is strongly recommended
that before trying to use the News Reader that you ensure that both
your terminal setup and NCF setup have been set identically,
otherwise your screen output may be garbled or erratic.

If you select a local NCF discussion group, you will first see the
list of articles.  You will see the titles given to each article
and a sequential number assigned to each.  The current article (the
one that any command will act on) is always marked with "*".  When
you enter a discussion group the "*" will be set to the first
unread article in that discussion group.  At the bottom of the
article list is a short command menu, and a command line.

To read an article you can enter the number next to the title or,
if you wish, you can read unread articles in order by entering "n"
(for next article).  After you have read an article the system will
mark the article with an "R" to show that you have read it.  When
you leave a discussion group, the system will record which articles
you have read, and the next time you use that discussion group the
list of read articles will be restored to the state that you left.
Continuing to use the "n" command will result in reading only what
you have not previously read.

If you select Usenet Newsgroups, instead of seeing the article list
of a single discussion group, you will see the main newsgroup list.
Each item on this list takes the form of a number and a three
character abbreviation followed by a ".".  Selecting one of them by
entering its number will result usually in the display of a second
list which breaks that topic down into a list of numbered sub-
topics.  This process may repeat several times.  Eventually, you
should get to a numbered list of articles, or a note indicating
that there are no articles available in that group.  When you get
to the list of articles, operation of the newsreader becomes the
same as that discussed above with discussion groups.

A great number of additional commands can be used with the
newsreader.  To see the full list you can enter the "h" command at
any time.  Some of the more useful commands are listed below:

   "t" -- Type out the current article.
   "n" -- read the Next unread article.
   "b" -- Back up and read the previous article.
   "v" -- View the next article.
   "s" -- read the next unread article with the Same subject.
   "T" -- Same as "t" without page breaks.
   "N" -- Same as "n" without page breaks.
   "B" -- Same as "b" without page breaks.
   "V" -- same as "v" without page breaks.
   "q" or "x" -- Quit or eXit the newsreader.
   "c" -- Contribute an article.
   "f" -- post a Follow-up to the current article.
   "j" -- Jump to a specified article without reading it.
   "=" -- moves you forward one screen in the article list.
   "-" -- moves you backward one screen in the article list.
   ">" -- Save current article to a file in your work directory.
   "k" -- Mark all articles up to and including the current article
                as read.

After trying some of these commands, most of the basic operations
in scanning through the article list and reading articles will
become fairly intuitive.  There are a few things that should be
pointed out.

First, if you want to save any articles to a capture or log file
with your terminal emulator, you should use the "T", "N", "B" or
"V" commands rather than the lower case equivalent.  This will
avoid having page breaks embedded in the middle of your captured
file.  You may also save an article to a file in your work
directory with the ">" command, and later download it to your
machine.

A second point is that if you come in for the first time to a long
standing discussion group, you may be faced with a very long list
of unread articles.  You may regard the older stuff as now
irrelevant, and wish to ignore it completely.  In such a case, step
through the list using the "=" command until the list begins to
look interesting.  You may even want to sample a few articles by
entering the corresponding number.  When you get the "*" positioned
to the point where you want to start regular reading, then give the
"k" command.  This will mark all prior articles as read, and
subsequent use of the "n" command will read only the later
articles.

An alternate approach to cutting off old articles is to give an "e"
command.  That will position you to the last article (i.e. the most
recent).  Then step backward through the list using the "-" command
until the titles, and article samples look uninteresting.  At this
point give the "k" command, and all of the prior articles will be
marked as read.




<13>                                                      29/03/93
             CONNECTING TO OTHER COMPUTERS                  aa331

OTHER FREENETS

You can connect to a number of other FreeNet systems by going to
the Communications menu then selecting item 7 - Connect to Other
Computer Systems.

There are ten such systems available currently:

              1 - The Buffalo Freenet
              2 - The Cleveland FreeNet
              3 - Columbia Online Information Network (COIN)
              4 - The Denver FreeNet
              5 - The Heartland FreeNet
              6 - The Lorain County FreeNet
              7 - The Tallahassee FreeNet
              8 - The Traverse City FreeNet
              9 - The Youngstown FreeNet
             10 - The Victoria B.C. FreeNet

The second one is by far the biggest and busiest, and the number of
users logged on can exceed 200 people.  Victoria, the only other
Canadian FreeNet, is still much smaller than NCF.

It is interesting to connect to these sister systems and get some
view as to the diversity of information and interests that can be
displayed on these community based information systems.  Since they
are all running the same software, navigating through each system
is the same as on NCF; only the information is changed.

A connection to any can be made simply by selecting the desired
system, and then after the internet makes the right connection for
you, by logging into the system as a guest user. Each system has a
variation of this, and these are noted below:

    Buffalo     When the login prompt appears, enter "freeport".
    Cleveland   Instructions will appear as to how to get access
                and explore.
    Columbia    When the login prompt appears, enter "guest".
    Denver      When the login prompt appears, enter "guest".
    Heartland   When the login prompt appears, enter "bbguest".
    Lorain      When the login prompt appears, enter "guest".
    Tallahassee When the login prompt appears, enter "visitor".
    Traverse    When the login prompt appears, enter "visitor".
    Youngstown  When the login prompt appears, enter "visitor".
    Victoria    When the login prompt appears, enter "guest".

Once logged in as a guest user, you can do many of the same things
that you can do on NCF, with similar restrictions; no mail, no
postings to discussion groups.  It should be noted that all of
these FreeNets allow distant users to register as a user, and once
registered, these restrictions are eliminated.  The process for
registering is explained on-line on each of the systems.

It should be noted that while you are connected to these other
FreeNets via NCF, you are strictly a user of the other system, and
NCF does not know, or care, what you are doing.  In particular, if
you save files or send or receive mail while on the other system,
all of that resides on the other system and not NCF.  If you want
to save information from the remote system it is probably easiest
to use the capture facility on your terminal emulator, and thus
have it on your own machine rather than as a file on a distant
system.


GOPHER SERVICE

The Gopher Electronic Library Service will be found as item 6 on
the Libraries menu.  It is also available with the "go gopher"
command.  The Gopher is an internet service that enables you to go
into "Gopherspace" and search out information of interest to you
from many computers located around the world.  What you can find is
limited mainly by your time and skills as a hunter.

Before using Gopher there are a number of points that should be
made.  First, Gopher requires that you use a fairly intelligent
terminal - a VT100, or better.  If you try to use it with a non-
compatible terminal, you may get very erratic and garbled results.
In addition, the menus for the Gopher service operate somewhat
differently from the standard menus elsewhere in NCF.  The most
important change is that the menu item that is currently active is
shown by an arrow in the left margin.  This can be moved up or down
by use of the up/down arrow keys on your keyboard.  Entering a
<return> will activate the item selected.  Some other commands, as
shown at the bottom of the screen, differ from what you are used
to.  In particular, the command "u" will move you up one menu,
rather than the "p" command.

The first Gopher menu contains an "about" file as its first item.
It is suggested that you read this first for a bit of background on
Gopher and how it operates.  The next two items on the menu are
options that let you search Gopherspace by topic using Veronica, or
to look at the information available from a list of worldwide
Gopher servers.  There is more about these options in following
paragraphs.  The remaining items on the first menu allow you to
search for information under a number of particular topic headings.

If you select item 2 - Search titles in Gopherspace using Veronica,
you will get the Veronica menu.  Veronica is a service that
maintains an index of titles of Gopher information items, and
provides keyword searches of those title.  There are three Veronica
servers in the menu; CNIDR, UNR and NYSERNet.  The latter is the
closest one, and may give you the most rapid response.  It is
suggested that you read through items 8 and 9 on the Veronica menu.
These will tell you how to compose a "simple boolean" search
request for Veronica, and will answer some frequently asked
questions about Veronica.

After selecting the desired Veronica server from the menu, you will
then be given a screen on which to enter your search criteria.
This can be a single keyword, or combination of keywords.  For
instance if you enter "automobiles and North America and
manufacturing" it will return with a list of articles that contain
all of the words "automobiles", "North America" and
"manufacturing".  You then have the option of reading selected
articles on your screen, or having them Emailed to you.

If, at the main Gopher menu, you select item 3 - Other Gophers, you
will get a list of all of the Gopher servers throughout the world.
The list is many screens long and you can move through the list by
using the up/down arrow keys.  You may select any entry on the list
with the <return> key, and then you will see a further list of the
databases maintained by that server.  By doing further selections
you can get to specific information that you desire from that
server.

It must be noted that this worldwide Gopher service is relatively
new, the distributed information structure very broad and complex,
and things do not always work.  You may get messages to the effect
that Gopher "cannot connect".  This means that either the network
is too busy at the moment, or a server is unavailable for some
reason.  It is suggested that you try again some other time.  What
you get, or don't get, from a particular search is entirely
dependent on the information that is in place on the Gopher
network.  NCF has no control over this, and accepts no
responsibility for anyting but providing you with access to it.

It should also be noted that the use of Gopher for the transfer of
binary and program files has been disabled on NCF.  This is in part
to avoid placing excessive demands on the internet, and also
because NCF policy is not to compete with commercial services in
the distribution of software.

Because the Gopher offerings are so broad, it is impossible to
describe them fully here.  Your best option is to go and explore
Gopherspace on your own.  Happy hunting!




<14>                                                      28/08/93
                      THE HELP SYSTEM                       aa331

The NCF provides a variety of on-line documentation to help users
to understand how to use NCF effectively.  This can be found by
going to item 14 - Help Desk, or entering the command "go help".

The details of what is contained in the Help system will not be
covered here, but to serve as an indication of the contents, the
expanded menus are listed below.  In this, the items in the first
menu are listed starting at the left margin.  Where a first menu
item refers to a submenu, the submenu items are listed immediately
below the calling item, and indented.

It should be noted that all services that are documented are not
necessarily available and working on NCF at this time.  Two such
examples are the Vote System, and some file transfer protocols.
When and as resources are available, and software fixes have been
completed, the missing items may become available.



HELP SYSTEM MENU SUMMARY:

             <<< THE HELP DESK >>>

  1 About the Help Desk

  2 Survival Guide for New Users...
       1 About the Survival Guide for New Users
       2 Modem Setup
       3 Terminal Setup
       4 Logging On
       5 Navigating Menus
       6 FreeNet Setup
       7 Changing Passwords
       8 Directory Services
       9 Getting an Account
      10 Using the Mail System
            1 Introduction
            2 Sending Mail
            3 Receiving Mail
            4 Additional Mail Options
      11 Connecting to Other Computers
      12 Using Discussion & News Groups
      13 Connecting to Other Computers
      14 The HELP System
      15 Common Problem Symptoms and Their Cure

  3 Help with the FreePort Menu System...
       1 Help with Menu Commands
       2 Help with Menu Commands from within mail/news/vote modules
       3 Help with the Usenet News Reader
       4 Mail Reader/News Reader Range Commands
       5 Help with the Vote Module...
            1 About VOTE
            2 VOTE Release Notes
            3 Using VOTE

  4 Help with Editors...
     Basics
       1 Introduction to Pico
       2 Chet's Emacs Basics (an intro to CE)
     Advanced Topics
       4 Interactive CE tutorial
       5 Chet's Emacs commands
       6 Chet's Emacs key bindings
       7 Chet's Emacs command names

  5 Help with Mail...
       1 Using the Mail System
       2 About the Post Office
       3 About Mail Forwarding
       4 About Mail Aliases
       5 About Signature Files

  6 Help with Bulletin Boards

  7 Help with Searching...
       1 Using the search functions (for beginners)
       2 Searching text files (for more advanced users)
       3 Help with Regular Expressions

  8 Help with Directory Services...
       1 About the Databases
       2 A List of Common Abbreviations
       3 How to Create your Database Files

  9 Help with File Transfer...
       1 Using Files on FreePort
       2 Help with file transfers
       3 File Sharing Under FreePort
       4 The FreePort Directory Editor (dired)

 10 How to change to your SIGop ID

 11 Questions & Answers >>>




<15>                                                      28/05/93
            COMMON PROBLEM SYMPTOMS AND THEIR CURE          aa331

This section contains a list of commonly experienced problem, and
a statement of the probable cause.  You should be aware of many of
these symptoms so that you can fix or avoid the problem.

1)   My screen displays funny characters at the end of every line,
     or has strange garbles in other places.

     The most likely cause is that there is a discrepancy between
     the setup of your terminal emulator and your FreeNet setup.
     See Sections 3 and 6 of this Survival Guide.  Also note that
     you can check your current setup at any time by giving the
     command "printenv".  A listing for a reasonably normal
     printenv is at the end of Section 6.

2)   My screen display scrolls right through long articles faster
     than I can read them.

     It is likely that paging has been turned off in your NCF
     setup.  Use the "go config" command to get to the Set
     Environment Parameters menu, then select 1 - Set your system
     parameter, and finally select 1 - Use the system pager.  You
     should also double check other parameter settings as per the
     Freenet Setup section of the Survival Guide.  Do not forget to
     select item 6 - Save your Environment Parameters before
     exiting from the Set Environment menu.

3)   What is the status of the Xmodem, Ymodem or Zmodem protocols
     in the File Transfer menu?

     These three protocols are still under test and are not
     certified to work at the moment.  The only protocol that is
     fully tested for text transfers is KERMIT.  It will not
     transfer binary files reliably however.  It is hoped that we
     will have a fully operational set of protocols in the near
     future.

4)   When using the "+" command repeatedly to step through the
     article list in newsgroups my modem seems to disconnect.

     With many modems a sequence of "+++" will cause the modem
     switch to command mode.  The sequence "AT A" should return it
     to communication mode.  It is best to avoid the problem by
     using only the "=" command to step through newsgroup article
     lists.  It is equivalent to "+" for that purpose.

5)   Is there any way to avoid the page breaks for every screen in
     an article that is captured to a file on my PC?

     In the case of something that is being read by the mail reader
     or the news reader, using the upper case commands "T", "V",
     "N", and "B" will result in the article being displayed
     continuously without page breaks.  If you are capturing an
     article from a menu, enter the command "nopage" before
     displaying the article.  When done, enter the command "page"
     to turn paging back on.

6)   What causes the "Incomplete Termcap Entry" diagnostic, and
     what will prevent it?

     This diagnostic means that the terminal type that you have
     selected in your NCF setup is "too dumb" to run the program
     that you are trying to run.  It may also mean that by failing
     to do a selection, you are set up for the default dumb
     terminal.  The fix is to define a terminal type such as a
     VT100 on both FreeNet and in your terminal emulator.  See the
     Setup sections in this Guide.

7)   When I try to use Gopher I get assorted problems including
     rapid scrolling of the screen.

     The Gopher service works best with a VT100 terminal.  Make
     sure it is properly set up in both your terminal emulator and
     in your NCF setup.  See both setup sections in this Guide.

8)   How do I send Email to subscribers on CompuServe?

     To send mail to CompuServe use an address of the form:
        [e-mail]
     where the number is the addressee's CompuServe account number
     with the comma changed to a period.

9)   I get garbled information when I access the Ottawa Public
     Library through NCF.

     For best results, set your terminal emulator software to VT100
     emulation, and ensure that your FreeNet environment is also
     set to VT100.  See the Setup Sections in this Guide.
10)  When using Chet's Editor I can't get the commands with Escape
     key sequences to work - the escape becomes a space.

     Chet's Editor does handle Escapes properly - the problem is
     likely in your terminal emulator program.  Some of these
     require the user to explicitly define the escape key.  There
     may be other things needed as part of the emulator setup
     process.

11)  Why doesn't the Chat facility work?

     This facility has been turned off because it imposes an undue
     demand on our limited number of telephone lines.  There are
     plans to offer this service when we have more lines, initially
     only during off peak hours (i.e. not during 4 PM to midnight).

12)  I have a file that must have a garbled name, and I can neither
     access it nor delete it.

     The name probably has some unknown non-printing characters in
     it, so you cannot reference it properly by name.  The cure is
     to use the Directory Editor (the last item on the file
     services menu).  When selected, Dir-Ed will give you a display
     of all files in your directory.  By moving the cursor with the
     up/down arrow keys, select the offending file.  Enter a "c"
     for copy, and then follow instructions to copy the file to a
     new file with a valid name.  Then with the cursor still on the
     offending file, enter "d" to delete it.  Finally enter "q" to
     quit.  On the way out you will be asked to confirm the
     deletion request.

13)  My connection with NCF is often terminated abruptly.

     If you have the call waiting feature on the telephone line
     that you use with your computer, you must disable this before
     dialling NCF.  If you fail to do this, a incoming call will
     generate a call waiting signal which will corrupt the data
     signals and probably cause a disconnect.  You should include
     the characters *70 or some variant in your modem dialling
     string before the NCF number.  You should check with Bell for
     the specific sequence to use for your exchange.

14)  Can I use FTP and Telnet from NCF?

     FTP (file transfer protocol) is not supported on NCF.  A
     limited form of Telnet is supported.  Telnet connections can
     be made to a number of other FreeNet installations as provided
     in the Communications menu.  In addition, the Gopher Service
     in the Library menu will allow some other connections.
     Unlimited Telnet to any internet site is not supported.

15)  Is there any way of turning off the signature in the mail
     signature file for selected messages, or for selecting between
     multiple signatures?
     No.  If there is anything at all in your signature file, that
     will be appended automatically to every message or posting
     just before it is sent.  If you want a selective or multiple
     signature, make sure that the signature file is empty, and put
     the desired signatures as separate files in your work
     directory.  Then before sending a message, use the append a
     file option to add the specific signature desired.  This
     requires a conscious action with each message, unlike the
     normal signature file.

16)  When I try to download something with Gopher it tells me that
     "secure mode" is on.  What does this mean?

     It means that you can not download software from other sites
     using NCF.  This is in part to limit the data traffic that we
     impose on the internet.  A more important reason is that NCF
     is not in the business of competing with commercial bulletin
     boards and information services in the distribution of
     software.

17)  I was able to complete and post a message after the five
     minute warning sounded, but was not able to exit before I was
     bumped.  I now find that all the articles that I read are
     unmarked.  Can I prevent/recover from this?

     If you have a defined point in the article list where you
     stopped reading, you may go to that article and enter a "k"
     command.  All prior articles will be marked as read.  On the
     other hand, if you had a scattered reading pattern, there is
     no easy way to restore the marking except doing it over one at
     a time.  To prevent loss of article marking, you can enter the
     "w" command at any time to force the newsreader to write your
     information to file immediately.

18)  I am often caught by the "five minutes to go" warning when I
     am in the middle of composing a long message.  I can't save
     the message, but to send it as is may be confusing.  Is there
     a way out?

     When that happens, the best quick way out it to skip to the
     top of the message and edit the To: and Cc: fields so that it
     will be sent to your address only.  Then send it, exit from
     the mailer, and log off.  Log on again at your convenience,
     then read the message you have just sent to yourself, and
     select the "r" for reply option.  The message will then appear
     in your edit screen.  Edit the To: and Cc: fields to the
     correct addresses, delete the Re: from the subject field, and
     delete the ">" marks from the left margin of the text.  Then
     go ahead and complete the text and send the message in the
     normal way.