The Rain Users FAQ 1) Faq's on Faq's 1.1) What is a FAQ and where can I find more of them? 2) System Questions 2.1) What are the local dialin numbers? 2.2) What are some phone numbers I can call for support. 2.3) How much disk space can I use? 2.4) Why can't people outside rain finger me? 2.5) The system keeps asking for my Login and Password, but won't let me in. 2.6) I receive these weird f's when I log in. What are they? 2.7) What are the addresses and domain names needed for PPP or SLIP setup? 2.8) How long is the idle timer set for? 2.9) Who is RAIN? 3) Web Questions 3.1) How do I set up a Web page so everyone can see it? 3.2) How can I add a counter on my home page? 3.3) How can I read my counter without accessing my own page? 4) Mail Questions 4.1) How do I set up a mail filter? 4.2) How do I auto-forward my mail from rain? 4.3) How can I let people know I'm going to be away from my account for a while? 5) Usenet Questions 5.1) How can I change my news server? 5.2) How do I change the editor in tin? 6) FTP Questions 6.1) How do I set up an FTP directory. 6.2) How do I print a message to people when they first enter my ftp site? 7) Other stuff I have not organized yet. 7.1) IRC stuff. FAQS ON FAQS 1.1) What is a FAQ and where can I find more of them? A FAQ or Frequently Asked Question is a valuable tool for every net user. There are FAQs on almost any subject you can think of. In fact, there are even FAQs for subjects you don't want to think of! Almost every FAQ is posted periodically to the newsgroup 'news.answers'. You can also find FAQs by going here. SYSTEM QUESTIONS 2.1) What are the local dialin numbers? Santa barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, Montecito (28.8) 805-882-2260 (14.4) 805-899-8600 Ventura, Ojai, Camarillo, Oxnard (28.8) 805-650-5379 (14.4) 805-650-5354 Fillmore, Santa Paula (14.4) 805-659-1209 Thousand Oaks, Simi, Moorpark, Agoura Hills, Canoga Park, Conejo Valley, Northridge, Newbury Park, West Lake Village (28.8) 805-230-2300 2.2) What are some phone numbers I can call for support. You are likely to receive a response more quickly if you post your question on the rain.local.help newsgroup. If they are unable to help you there try posting it to an appropriate newsgroup. If you are still unable to find an answer then you may wish to try these other options. * Email: help@rain.org Phone Numbers: Rain Membership Services (805) 899-4695 Office Hours: Tue-Fri 12noon-4pm Account and Billing Questions (805) 967-1050 Camp Internet and Non-Profit Agency Information(805) 967-RAIN Business Services (805) 899-8699 Direct Faxes (805) 967-2420 Or you can write to RAIN at RAIN NETWORK POST OFFICE BOX 2683 SANTA BARBARA, CA 93120 2.3)How much disk space can I use. Rain has a disk limitation of 3 MEGS per person. If you exceed this you will be notified by a small prompt to your screen. You must remove the extra files within 1 week. To see how much disk space you must free, type 'quota' at your shell prompt. There is a 5 MEG ceiling at which time you will no longer be able to place any more files in your directory and you will receive another message indicating this. You must remove some files before you can place any new files in your directories. 2.4) Why can't people outside rain finger me? Due to outside abuse and for security, the finger deamon on RAIN has been disabled. Users on RAIN are able to finger each other, but users outside the system will receive the message: "Finger: Connection Refused." 2.5) The system keeps asking for my Login and Password, but won't let me in. You _must_ be dialing the West Lake Village/Ventura numbers. ;) There have been numerous problems with the connection from WLV/V to Santa barbara. The problems lie outside of RAIN and so we must be patient when these problems arise. You may wish to call one of the Santa barbara numbers in the meantime. The message you receive when you finger help@rain.org is incorrect. You will always receive the message "Invalid Login" when the system is busy or if you mistyped your username or password. If there is a long delay before you receive the message, the system is probably heavily loaded. The T1 link may be down between your server and RAIN but it is rare. 2.6) I receive these weird f's when I log in. What are they? Sometimes when you log in you might see something similar to this: f~f~ff`f`fxfxfx`f~`x~fxfxfxx`f~ffffffx~~fxx It is a speed negotiation between Rain's modem and yours. To solve this problem try and lock the baud rate on your modem. Most terminal programs have an option to lock the speed rate and once you locate it and set it you should no longer get the weird characters. 2.7) What are the addresses and domain names needed for PPP or SLIP setup? For more information on how to setup your SLIP/PPP account see the .txt files in /home/u1/ftp/pub/win or /home/u1/ftp/pub/macintosh domain name rain.org address 198.68.144.2 and 198.68.144.10 NNTP or news news.rain.org SMTP or mail mail.rain.org POP server rain.org POP user nameyour login id 2.8) How long is the idle timer set for? About 12 min. If that's not long enough you can setup PING( SLIP/PPP), but please don't over use it. Let's keep the modems open for the other 3000 users here on Rain. 2.9) Who is RAIN? The Regional Alliance for Information Networking Central Team Timothy Tyndall Network Director Marcy Montgomery Business Services Director Silvia Tyndall Director of Education Kamran Mobran Assistant to the Director barbara Lilly Member Services Coordinator Cora Rubio Member Services Manager Lev Mallanger Community Development Manager Koral Tylor Network System Administrator Kurt Albershardt Network Technical Operations Mgr Mr. Steve Network System Manager Mason Lyte Marketing & Design Consultant WEB QUESTIONS 3.1) How do I set up a web page so everyone can see it? If you are using an DOS SLIP/PPP account, create your page with htmwritter which can be found in /home/u1/ftp/pub/win. Save your page as 'index.html' Now start up your ftp program and create a directory named 'public_html'. Change your directory into your newly created 'public_html' and then copy your 'index.html' over by pressing on the arrow button pointing toward the 'public_html' directory. That's it! If you are using a SHELL account, create a directory within your home directory named public_html. Place your index.html file, and other html files in that directory. Now you need to change the permissions on the directory and the html file so it is world readable by typing the following from with in the public_html directory: chmod a+r * chmod a+x . chmod a+x $HOME (Not sure if this is required, but just to be on the safe side.... ) 3.2) How can I add a counter on my home page? You can make a counter on your page with the statement <(!)--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counterord"--> without the ( ) arround the exclamation mark. An example of its use: You are the <(!)--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counterord"--> to access this page Would look like this: You are the 16th to access this page I have noticed that this way does not count hits by the lynx browser. 3.3) How can I read my counter without accessing my homepage? I have only recieved information on how to do this with your shell. Place this line in your .login. echo `grep (uname) /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/access_count | cut -f2 -d' '` Replacing (uname) with your username. This search expression has worked for some on multiple pages, showing numbers from right to left in the order they were accessed. MAIL QUESTIONS 4.1)How do I setup a mail filter? If you are using a WINDOWS SLIP/PPP account, I highly recommend the PEGASUS mail reader. It has a simple to use mail filter built in. If you are using a SHELL account, read the Filtering Mail FAQ on news.answers. I'm in the process of making a shorter step-by-step version for us here at RAIN. You can mail me with questions in the meantime. 4.2) How do I auto-forward my mail from rain? Create a file named .forward with your favorite editor. Place the address you wish to have your mail sent on the FIRST line. (ie: grapple@other.account) IF you wish to have a copy remain here at RAIN you would do this: \grapple, grapple@other.account Make sure that file is placed in your home directory. 4.3)How can I let people know I'm going to be away from my account for a while? At the shell prompt type 'vacation' and follow the on screen instructions. When you return, simply type 'vacation' again to disable the program. ***WARINING*** If you subscribe to mailing lists, useing vacation could be a bad idea. You may wish to unsubscribe to the list before you leave if you REALLY want to use this program. You could, however, set up a procmail filter to send messages to people but not to the list. See the Filtering Mail Faq for more information. USENET NEWS QUESTIONS 5.1) How can I change my news server? WARNING: Please note that most other news servers will be extremely slower than news.rain.org because they are not local. You will also not be able to access the rain.local newsgroups. If you are using a SLIP/PPP account, you will want to change the setting NEWS or NNTP in your newsreader from 'news.rain.org' to whatever news server you want. (ie:news.zippo.com) If you are using a SHELL account, place the following line in your .cshrc NNTPSERVER news.zippo.com You must now type 'source .cshrc' for the changes to take effect. If you only want the change to be temporary you can type: 'setenv NNTPSERVER news.zippo.com' at your shell prompt. This will connect you to the news.zippo.com mailserver. 5.2) How do I change the editor in the tin newsreader? If you are using csh, change the 'setenv EDITOR /usr/bin/vi' to setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/pico Or if you wish to use Pine instead, just replace 'pico' with 'pine' ANONYMOUS FTP QUESTIONS 6.1) How can I set up an anonymous FTP directory? Mail stevem or koral and ask to have a directory made for you. The directory will be created in the directory: /home1/ftp/pub/Your_user_name. Due to past abuse of anonymous uploading to RAIN, uploads are no longer allowed. The file space used here is part of your 3 MEG limit here on RAIN. 6.2) How can I print a message to people when they first enter my FTP site? Create a file named .message in your FTP directory. Place what you want your guests to see in that file. Make sure the file is world readable by typing 'chmod a+r .message'. OTHER STUFF Please note that the items below are not fully covered. Why are they here? Because it is easier for me to keep track of them here than to have 15 scraps of paper floating about my desk. ;) 7.1)INTER RELAY CHAT WINDOWS SLIP/PPP users should grab MIRC from ??? http://www.sbcomp.com.mirc.index.html some servers are irc.portol.com 9998, irc.cris.com,irc.winternet.com, irc.cdc.net SHELL users should grab the irc program from my ftp site. The RAIN FAQ is maintained by gRaPpLe