Copyright: Pipeline Help ® 1993 The Pipeline Network Inc.


Contents
Pipeline™ Help

Here are specific how-to's and general tips about using Pipeline™ for Windows. Also, from within Pipeline, you can jump directly to help about many parts of the program by placing the cursor on them and then pressing F1 or choosing Help from the menu.

What's It All About

Introduction

Getting Started

Dialing In

Main Features

Pathways into the Internet

Other Services

Connect anywhere (Telnet)

Find someone

Search current news

So How Do I . . . ?

Some sample how-to's

Under the Hood

Setting various user options

Pink Slip™

Credits


Introduction

Pipeline for Windows is a program that connects you to the global Internet. You need only a computer running Microsoft Windows (which you have, since you are reading this) and a modem. Using the Pipeline software, you dial into the Pipeline's host computer, which in turn is your gateway to every service and information source on the entire Internet. In other words, we are your on-ramp to the Information Superhighway.

About the Internet . . .

What Is It, Anyway?

What Is the Pipeline?

A Gentle Warning


Internet Defined
What Is the Internet, Anyway?

First, what it isn't: It isn't a thing; it isn't an entity; it isn't an organization. No one owns it; no one runs it. The best way to think about the Internet is: Everyone's Computers, Connected.

It is the network of all networks [image] the combination of all the large and small university, government, and corporate networks. This combination has emerged as thousands of formerly isolated networks have linked up with one another. Historically (meaning over the last decade or so) the United States military and the National Science Foundation played crucial roles in creating and financing much of the backbone of this vast inter-network.

The Internet may prove to be one of the federal government's most magnificent modern achievements, and it was achieved almost inadvertantly. Even now politicians speak of the need to foster an "information superhighway," not realizing the extent to which the government has already helped create this very thing. Meanwhile the Internet has become truly international. Parts of it are noncommercial and parts of it are commercial.

Of course, there are still many islands isolated from this vast continent.  They range from the millions of individual computers and company networks that have not found a way to link up, to large proprietary networks like Prodigy. It seems clear now that these pockets of isolation will prove temporary.


The Pipeline: Who, What, Where
The Pipeline Itself

Who, What, and Where We Are

The Pipeline itself lies [image] in geographical space [image] inside a Sun Microsystems computer network situated just off Wall Street in the heart of New York's Telecommunications District (formerly Financial District). In network space [image] cyberspace [image] it is at an Internet node known simply as pipeline.com, roughly as near and as far (give or take a few milliseconds) as any other place on the Internet.

The Pipeline's founder is James Gleick, the author of Chaos: Making a New Science. He grew obsessed with the Information Age resources he encountered on the Internet and at the same time grew frustrated by the hurdles that seemed to exist for normal, interested, non-university, non-Unix-speaking and generally non-U individuals like himself.

Its administrator, chief programmer, and resident genius is Uday Ivatury, a Bombay native who cut his teeth on (and survived) the world of IBM mainframes. He has set himself a formidable challenge with The Pipeline: a joining of the seemingly alien cultures of Unix work stations and DOS or Apple personal computers.


A Gentle Warning
The Internet: A Word of Warning

"Is it me, you, them, or Memorex?"
Andrew Schlein, Pipeline beta tester

It's a rough-and-tumble world out there on the Net. A lot of what you encounter in Pipeline is within our control [image] but a lot more is not. It might help to think of your forays through electronic space as similar to telephone calls: sometimes you get through right away, sometimes no one answers, and sometimes the line is busy.

As the Internet has burst into public consciousness, many providers of data have found themselves overloaded. They may become available only at off-peak hours, or they may close down altogether. We try to keep up with the fast-changing landscape, but you will be frustrated from time to time.

Please do send us feedback when you discover especially unreliable sources of information. And for your own peace of mind, keep in mind that someone is providing that service, however imperfectly, free of charge.

Even electronic mail is not perfectly reliable at some sites. You may see messages showing that mail you sent did not get through (in the absence of a message, you can be reasonably confident, but never perfectly confident, that it arrived safely). The Pipeline resends mail automatically for a while, but if your destination is offline temporarily or having local system trouble . . . mail will bounce.

It's a jungle. Now that you've been warned: enjoy it!


Getting Started

Create a New User

If you haven't already done so, you will want to create a new user (you) before you connect with the Pipeline. You may choose File/Create New User from the main menu, or, if you have opened the Dial window, you may press the New button.

You will be prompted for a user name and your full name. Enter them, and Pipeline will set up the necessary files and directories on your computer.

This copy of Pipeline for Windows allows you to create as many different users as you want. You may share the program, in other words. Each user has a mailing address, so each user will need an account at the Pipeline.

Now you need only connect.

 Dialing In


Dialing In
Dialing the Pipeline

Just Do It

Choose Dial! from the main menu (or type Alt-D).

Make sure your user name is selected.

Type your password and Enter (or press Dial).

The Details . . .

Creating a New User

About Passwords

Type of Session

Changing Dial Options

Why Can't I Enter Your Phone Number

Connecting from a Remote Site


Connecting from a Remote Site

How to Avoid Long Distance Charges . . .

If you are not in our area, and if you happen to have access to another Internet connection, you can still use Pipeline for Windows as your interface.

In the Dial Options screen (available under the main Options menu), choose "Dial another site and log in remotely."

Now, when you Dial, you will be asked to enter a phone number for your local site. If you have already entered it, you may just select in from the drop-down list.

We will connect you to the number you enter. A plain terminal window will appear, to let you log into your site.

Now, enter a command that connects you to the Pipeline via the Internet itself. The most standard command is "rlogin -8 pipeline.com." (If this doesn't work, you may need to ask your local system for help.)

As soon as the connection to the Pipeline is made, select Activate from the menu. The software takes over and logs you in automatically, using your Pipeline password. From here on, your session continues as if you dialed the Pipeline directly. To disconnect, just select Goodbye! from the main menu.

About Passwords

Changing Dial Options


About Passwords

If you have an account, you already have a password, or will soon choose one in consultation with our staff. Unfortunately, in the Wild West frontier of the Internet, passwords are even more important than on private online services.

In the Dial window, you may show your password or hide it (press the Show or Hide button) depending on whether busybodies tend to be looking over your shoulder. The Pipeline will remember your preference.

You can change your password at any time. You will be connected directly with our host computer, and you will be prompted to enter your new password. Twice. You can also tell the software to remember your password from session to session, so that you don't have to keep typing it. However, this is risky. For either of these Select Options from the main menu.

What makes a good password?Password options


Password Selection
What makes a good password?

Six to eight characters that can (and should) include numerals and punctuation. Case does matter: if your password is "abcDef" then typing "abcdef" will not work.

Unfortunately, if it's easy to remember, it's probably a bad password. Here are a few rules of password selection, some of which we may be enforcing automatically:

Dictionary words and names are no good.

Dates, social security numbers, and telephone numbers: no good.

Sequences with patterns of a few characters: nope.

Most important of all

A password you use anywhere else in the electronic universe is no good. We know what a nuisance this rule is (can you imagine how many passwords we've gone through ourselves?).


Type of Session

Full. In a Full session, you remain on line until you decide to sign off (by selecting Goodbye! from the main menu or by exiting the program).

Mail only. You will log on just long enough to receive any waiting mail and send any messages you have written off line.

News and mail. Besides mail, you also get any News articles you have selected off line and update the subject headings in your News folders.


Changing Modem Options
Setting Up Your Modem

You can set a variety of dialing options by choosing Options/Set Up Modem from the main menu.

We hope you won't need to think about most of these options. Pipeline can usually figure out what it needs to know (software that forces you to find the manual that came with your modem is our idea of bad software). Nevertheless, here they are.

Do I Want To . . . Dial the Pipeline directly, or log in from a remote site? Usually you will just dial us. But if you're out of town and you have access to another Internet connection, then you may want to select the second option to take advantage of our Remote Connection Capability.

Your Area Code

We need to know whether you're calling from out of our area, so we can dial the phone correctly.

Dial Prefix

If you need to dial 9 to get an outside line, check the Dial 9 box. If you need to dial something more complicated, type it into the Other Prefix box. If for some reason you don't want to dial 1 (you're making a credit-card call, for example), here's where you tell us that, too.

Dial Suffix

You may need to add something after the number, usually for billing reasons. If so, you probably know it.

Communications Port

What comm port or serial port is your modem attached to? Pipeline thinks it knows, but in case we're wrong or you want to overrule us (have two modems?), you may choose 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Modem Speed

Again, Pipeline has tried to get your modem to tell us. Nevertheless, you may choose any of the listed baud rates. By the way, we support the highest speeds and best compression schemes generally available, and we recommend that you use a modem that takes advantage of them.

Type of Dialing

Tone (you know, touch-tone, with buttons), or Pulse (the little clicks you get when you turn the round dial with your finger). Which kind of phone do you have? We assume tone until you tell us otherwise.

Init String and Hangup String

Few people will need to touch these. But if you are having trouble connecting with the Pipeline or disconnecting, you might try changing them. You may have to look at your modem's documentation (sorry).


Pipeline Phone Numbers
Why No Phone Numbers?

Because we are adding new lines and expanding our telephone options rapidly. And because we don't believe in making users do manually what software can do automatically.

By the way, we hope that our phone lines will always be in perfect static-free service and that your modem will always connect seamlessly with ours. But in an imperfect world . . .

There are several kinds of intelligence hidden in our dialing system. For example, if you're ever unlucky enough to get a busy signal or non-answering line (in either case a symptom of trouble), the Pipeline software will redial a different number. If you've ever subscribed to an online service where you sometimes had to redial over and over without getting a connection, we think you will appreciate this.


Gopher
Pathways into the Internet

The list that appears in the middle of the main program screen is the Pipeline "Gopher":

The Pipeline: Information and Today's News
The Internet: Guides and Tools
[and so on]

These are like the main branches of an enormous (in fact, never-ending) tree. If you double click any item, a new list will appear . . . and so on.

Soon, though, you will start to see items that are not lists, but other things: text files, picture files, or even live connections to other sites. These are like the leaves at the ends of the branches. They are marked with icons that show which of the Gopher Types

they belong to.

It's not quite a tree, really, because many paths lead to the same destinations, though often by roundabout routes. You can issue a command to search all Gopherspace by choosing Veronica from the main Services menu. However you choose to do it, the idea is: explore.

Where Is all this stuff?

At first, most of what you see is (physically) on the Pipeline's main computer. Soon, though, you will find yourself connecting to other computers around the globe. The whole thing is always evolving: even the main Pathways list changes and is refreshed each time you log in.

Changing some options

One more definition of Gopher


Gopher Types

 Another List

 Search: look up a word or phrase in a database

 Text: a document

 Picture

 File: a binary file, such as a program

 Connection: direct link to another service (Telnet)


Gopher Lists
Gopher List

Every time you double-click on a new list, you move further through the Internet and find new resources. Double click an item (or select it and press Enter) to get it, show it, search it, or connect to it.

Sometimes you will be prompted to enter a word or phrase. It might be an address of a person  you want information about or a site you want to connect to. It might be a subject for a search. The next time you select the same item, the program will remember your previous choices and show them to you in a drop-down list (click on the down arrow or press the down arrow on the keyboard to display them). You may select one, or enter a new one.

If you find a resource you will want to use again, you may select Bookmarks! from the menu to add it to your permanent Bookmark list.

Keyboard shortcut: to back up to a previous list, type U.

What if these lists are getting out of control?


Bookmarks

Often you will come upon a resource or service deep in the heart of Gopherspace that you know you will want to find again.

Select it in the Gopher list and use the Bookmark! menu item to add something to the main Pipeline menu. Then you will be able to reach it next time with a single command.

A few sample Bookmarks are included with the program, and you may delete these (from the main menu) and substitute your own.


Search type
Search

You will be prompted for a word or phrase to use for searching a database that may be anything from a dictionary to a collection of recipes to a library catalogue to shelf of books.

The rules for searches vary, because the searches are being carried out by many different computer systems. You may have to experiment, but, usually, if you "enclose a phrase in quotation marks" the search will look for exactly that. Some sites let you use the logical connectors and, or, and not to join two words.


Veronica (search Gopherspace)
Search Gopherspace with Veronica

What if you want to search in a single step through all the electronic resources connected through our "Pathways into the Internet" (Gopher)?

Choose "Search Gopherspace with Veronica" from the main Services menu.

Enter a word to search for. You will get a list that (depending on your word) is likely to be an amazing mixture of useful, useless, fascinating, and irrelevant items.

Oh, and why "Veronica"? We hate to say it:

    Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized Archives.


Gopher Defined Again
Gopher, defined again

From the inventors of Gopher at the University of Minnesota:

   gopher  n.  1. Any of various short tailed, burrowing mammals of
   the family Geomyidae, of North America.  2. (Amer. colloq.)
   Native or inhabitant of Minnesota: the Gopher State.
   3. (Amer. colloq.) One who runs errands, does odd-jobs, fetches
   or delivers documents for office staff.  4. (computer tech.)
   Software following a simple protocol for tunneling through a TCP/IP
   internet.


Mail: Overview
The Mail Manager

This will usually be the first new window you see when you connect to the Pipeline. You can always bring it up (whether you are connected or not) either my clicking on the mailbox icon in the mail Pipeline window or by choosing Mail/Services from the main menu.

Receiving Mail

If mail is waiting for you, it will quickly arrive in your Inbox. (The status bar at the bottom of the main Pipeline window shows the transfers in progress, but be warned: they may flash by too quickly for you to see.)

This is basic, but if you are used to other online services, it may surprise you at first. The point is, you don't have to do anything to get your mail: if you are online, and the Mail Manager is running, it just comes.

More about Mail

Sending Mail

The Mail Window

Email Addresses

Your Address List

Sending Files

Mail Options

Mailing Lists

What If Disaster Strikes?


Mail: Sending
Sending Mail

To start a new letter, press the New button or choose the File New command from the menu.

To reply to the sender of a letter, press Reply or choose File Reply. (Sometimes you may want to quote the text of the original letter in your reply. To do this automatically, make sure that the quote* box is checked when you press Reply.)

The top of the mail window will now show fields where you can fill in information about your new letter: these are labeled To, CC, and Subject. (If you are replying, the To and Subject fields are filled in for you, but you can change them as you desire.)

You may send (or CC) mail to more than one person by entering a list of names separated with commas.

The To and CC fields also contain drop-down lists, so that, instead of typing in a name, you may select one from your address list. The address list can be opened and edited directly through the Addresses item on the menu.

Your Address List

Email Addresses

Sending Files

Mail to Private On-Line Services


Address List
The Address List

As a convenience, Pipeline lets you store email addresses in your Address List. To work with this list directly, choose Addresses from the Mail menu.

You may define short nicknames (or "aliases") for any address. For example, if you correspond regularly with the President of the United States, you may find the nickname bill more convenient to type (and easier to remember) than the full address. Just define a nickname in the Address List.

This feature becomes even more useful when you need to send mail to groups. The full version of a nickname need not be just a single address: it can be a list of addresses, separated by commas (with no spaces in between). These addresses can themselves be nicknames.

For example, you can define beatles as ringo,john,paul,george and sg as simon,garfunkel. Then if you define music as beatles,sg you can send mail to all six people with the single nickname.


Mail: working off line
Handling Mail Off Line

If you are trying to keep your time on line to a minimum, you can work with your mail off line.

Start the Mail Manager (by clicking on the mailbox icon or selecting Mail from the main Services menu). Write as many letters as you like. They will be added to a queue and saved in your Outgoing folder.

The next time you connect with the Pipeline, the queued mail will be sent. In the meantime, if you want to edit it, you may do so by selecting the Outgoing folder.

When you dial, if you want to send outgoing mail quickly and receive mail that may be waiting, you may choose the Mail Only option in the Dial windows.


Address Formats
A Quick Guide to Email Addresses

Internet mail addresses take the form name@something.something. The "@" is the at sign above the 2 on your keyboard and is usually spoken aloud as "at." The period [image] and there may be more than one [image] is usually spoken as "dot."

For example, if your user name at the Pipeline is bclinton, then your full mail address is bclinton@pipeline.com (spoken aloud as "bclinton at pipeline dot com").

The last bit, com, is a common suffix that gives a clue about our type of organization; other common suffixes are edu, org, and net.

When sending mail to other Pipeline users, you may omit the "@pipeline.com" and use only a user name.

Addresses for private on-line services


Addresses For Private Services
Mail to Private On-Line Services

While such organizations last, you may need to send mail to their customers who have not yet realized that they need direct access to the Internet. A few examples of how their addresses should look:

SERVICE          EXAMPLE
________________________

America Online   screenname@aol.com
Applelink        user@applelink.appl.com
ATTMail          user@attmail.com
BITNET           user@host.bitnet
Compuserve       77777.3333@compuserve.com
  (note: Use a period, not a comma)
Delphi           user@delphi.com
Fidonet          user.name@p3.f2.n5.z1.fidonet.org
MCIMail          firstname_lastname@mcimail.com
  (note: Use name without hyphen or a number)
UUCP             user@host.uucp

Unfortunately, few of these services have figured out a way to make their membership directories available on the Internet; or a way to support the transfer of binary files.


Sending Files
Sending Files by Mail

You can insert text into letters by using the usual Windows paste command. But you may also insert whole files, whether they are text or binary files.

To do this, press the Insert button or choose File Insert from the menu. You will be asked whether your file is ordinary text or a binary file.

Note for experienced users: Pipeline sends binary files by the Internet-standard uuencode method. If your recipient is a Pipeline user, the process will be transparent [image] the file will be processed automatically and saved to the recipient's disk. If your recipient is elsewhere on the Internet, he will have to know how to handle such files. By the same token, someone on the Internet who wants to send you a binary file should uuencode it; then the Pipeline software will process it for you automatically.


Mail: Main Window
Mail Window Basics

The mail window has two main parts. At the top is the Table of Contents, the list of your mail items. At the bottom is the text of the selected item.

The Table of Contents contains four pieces of information about each item. A small icon shows whether the item is old or new (notice how the icon changes after you read a piece of mail). Then come the name of the sender, the date and time, and the subject.

To navigate through this list, you may use the down and up arrow keys (move one item at a time) or the PgUp and PgDn keys (one page at a time). Or you may click your mouse on the scroll bar.

Tip: you can adjust the width of these fields by using your mouse to drag the thin black line that separates them. Similarly, you can drag the border between the Table of Contents and the message text.

The message text can be scrolled or paged using the arrow and PgUp/PgDn keys (but first you must move the cursor to the text with the mouse or with the Tab key). You can select text to be copied to the Clipboard in standard Windows fashion. You cannot change the text (so the Edit Cut command is effectively the same as Edit Copy).

Using the buttons at the bottom of the mail window or the menu commands at the top, you can:

Reply to the sender

Reply to the sender quoting the original

If the "quote" checkbox is checked, the text of the letter you are

reading (or a portion you have selected) will be inserted for you

at the top of your reply. Each line will begin with a > character

to indicated that this is the quoted material.

Forward a letter to someone else

Save a letter to a new folder

Save a letter to a file on your disk

Print a letter

Delete it.

Searching: You may search for the sender or subject of a letter. Choose Edit Find from the menu or type Ctrl-F. To repeat your last search, press F3.

Until you delete it or save it to a new folder, each piece of mail will remain in your Inbox.

Sending Mail

Mail Options


Mail Options

You can change several of the ways in which the Mail Manager behaves to suit your own way of working. Select Options from the Mail menu.

Hide headers and line breaks. On the Internet, mail comes with long, complicated, hard-to-read header information. Most of this is used by Unix software to decide how to process the mail. Also, lines are broken every 60 or 80 characters, because Unix mail programs don't wrap lines intelligently, by and large. For Windows users, these are both annoyances: you probably don't want to see the headers, and you want your text to wrap freely in your Mail window (which you can resize as you see fit. So we remove these for you. If you want them back (for example: to see who has been CC'ed on a letter), click this item to remove the checkmark. Shortcut: Ctrl-H.

Beep for new mail. Pipeline makes a sound to alert you when new mail arrives. If you don't like it, click this item to remove the checkmark.

Show message for new mail. Pipeline can put up a message to alert you when new mail arrives. If you want it, click this item to add a checkmark.

Save outgoing mail in folder Sentmail. Pipeline saves copies of all letters you send, in the Sentmail folder. If you don't want a copy, click this item to remove the checkmark. You can also change this before you send any letter by checking or unchecking the box on the Mail window.

Confirm deletions. When you delete a letter or cancel one you're writing, Pipeline puts up a message asking you if you're sure. This is to give you one last chance to avoid losing data. On the other hand, maybe you don't want to waste an extra mouse click. If you don't like the prompt, click this item to remove the checkmark.

Signatures. Some Internauts like to use a fancy standard signature at the end of their Mail and News postings. Here is where you can enter one. Our paternalistic advice is: don't overdo it; the jokes get tiresome. But that's your problem.

Other options


Disasters
"I lost (deleted, never got) my mail!"

We consider lost mail a serious calamity. If you delete a letter by accident, or if you suspect you didn't get a letter you should have, or if (god forbid) a program or communications flaw causes you to lose mail, please let us know right away (see feedback).

The Pipeline keeps secure copies of all mail that crosses our electronic threshold for at least a few days, and we will do everything we can to help you recover your mail.


Mailing Lists

One of the fastest growing Internet phenomena is the mailing list. It's an interactive discussion group carried on entirely in your mailbox and the mailboxes of everyone else on the list. There are too many to count, and they change daily.

A list of mailing lists, and a tool for finding and subscribing to mailing lists on particular subjects, is available in the Pathways section under Internet. A list of mailing lists is also often available in the news.lists news group.

Rules vary, but usually the way to join (or unjoin) a list is to write, not to the list itself, but to the list with "-request" appended to it. So to join the list whose address is somelist@someplace.org, you write to somelist-request@someplace.org. Include your own email address (username@pipeline.com) in the letter.


News: Overview
News: An Overview

They have News-gatherers and Intelligencers distributed
 into their several Quarters.
Addison Spectator, 1712

"News" may seem like an odd name for the more than 4,000 (and rising) discussion groups carried on continuously on the Internet. But the contents of these groups are News in the most ancient sense of the word: tidings, rumors, bulletins, opinions, argumentation, amusement . . .

The News items or "articles" are posted by millions of individuals and transmitted around the globe in a sort of electronic chain-reaction.

To activate the Pipeline's News system, click on the icon or choose News from the main Services menu.

How News is organized

Where to start

Reading and posting News

User options

Not quite the same: Mailing Lists

"Real" News: Searching the UPI Wires


News Categories
How News Is Organized

Categories

First, there are broad, overall categories. At the Pipeline, we begin with a local category called In Town. Then comes a special category, ClariNews, which contains live News (in the modern sense) direct from the wires of United Press International. Then come seven major categories: alt, comp, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk. Then comes a catchall, other.

Groups

Within each category are many groups. Their names look like this:

rec.music.indian.classical

words separated by periods, each a subcategory of the one before. This group, for example, has a sister group, rec.music.indian.misc, and many cousin groups, from rec.music.a-cappella to rec.music.video.

The best way to think of the structure is as a tree. In fact, that is how the Pipeline displays the groups to you.

Threads

Within each group are many topics of discussion. You will see lists of subjects, displayed as a sort of table of contents. These threads can last for months or die out within hours

Articles

Within each thread are one or more articles. When someone replies to an article, the new message is listed under the old.


News: Folders Manager
News: Getting Started

The first window you see when you click on News is a list of your folders. Some are provided to help you get started.

Each folder contains several news groups. You can open a folder, edit the contents of a folder, delete a folder, or start a new folder, by pressing the appropriate button.

It is useful to organize folders by subjects that interest you. You might want to create one for all your baseball groups, or all your music groups . . .  A quick way to do that is to search for particular subjects when you are creating or editing a folder.

Searching for news groups on a subject

You can follow the groups in a folder daily or even hourly (news flows into the Pipeline around the clock). Or you can check in on them weekly or monthly (if the volume of articles is not too huge).

A Recommendation

We've found that it's often easier to work with a lot of folders with two, three, or a half-dozen news groups apiece than a few huge folders.

Reading and posting News: You open a folder


News Group Searches
Searching for News Groups

After clicking on News to start the News manager, create or edit a folder.

Type in a word that might be part of the name of the group or groups that interest you. Press the Search command button. (If you already knew the exact name of a group, you can add it to the folder by pressing Add.)

In a moment, you will see all of the 4,000+ groups that match your word or phrase. You may add any or all of these to your folder: press the Add Group button. Then you may search again for something else.

You can also browse manually through the lists of news groups. To see the groups in one of the ten major categories, click on the folder tab. The list is organized as a tree. To expand a heading (and see the items it contains), double-click on it, or select it and press Enter.


News Reading And Posting
Reading and Posting News

You have clicked on News and then opened a folder from the News manager. Now what?

A list of the latest articles from the news groups in your folder begins to arrive. You will see their progress in the status bar. Until they are here, the names of the news groups are grayed (disabled).

For a small group, or a group you are following regularly, this will take just seconds. For a group with a thousand or more articles, it may take several minutes. (You can limit the number of headings that will be received by setting a number in the main Options menu.)

When the Tables of Contents are in hand, a plus sign (+) appears next to the name of each group with messages. A minus sign (-) shows groups with no new messages.

The News Folder: How the Screen is Organized

This list of news groups is in the upper left corner of the window. Now a Table of Contents appears in the upper right. You can show the Table of Contents for any group by clicking on the group's name.

The Table of Contents shows a list of topics. At the beginning of each topic is a number in brackets, showing how many articles are listed for that topic:

[4] Why is this man smiling?

shows four articles about the smiling man. To "expand" the heading (show the items it contains), double-click it or select it and press Enter. You will now see the names of each article's sender.

The bottom part of the screen shows the text of the selected article. Use the mouse or the arrow keys to move through the Table of Contents and show new articles.

Tip: With the mouse, you can drag the borders between these portions of the screen and adjust the sizes until you like them.

Replying and Posting

Using the buttons at the bottom of the window or the menu commands at the top, you can:

Mail a reply to the sender of an article.

Post a public reply.

Save an article to your disk as a file

Forward a copy of an article by mail

Write and post your own article

Tip: If you don't happen to be in the News window, you can still quickly post an article if you know the name of a group. Just send mail to your.group.name.

User options


Find (Current News)

Pipeline subscribers have special access to the United Press International news wire, with a full feed of national, international, local, sports, financial, arts and entertainment news. There are urgent bulletins and weekly features (from Dave Barry to Miss Manners). The Find feature lets you search our archives of all this material for names, subjects, or phrases of particular interest to you.

Just enter your search word or phrase at the prompt, and you will receive a list of items that match your query.

Unlike most of the Internet services available through the Pipeline, this is not a free resource, though it is free for you. We pay a fee to the ClariNet service for the right to distribute the UPI material to you, our subscribers. You may use it freely, but you may not redistribute it, because it is still copyrighted.

If you want to browse this current news as it comes in, rather than search it, you may do so through News. All the UPI material is organized into the newsgroup format there.

News (Discussion Forums)


How (on-line help system)
How (our on-line help system)

You're probably tired of this help file. In fact, you're probably not reading it at all. You've probably already discovered that the question-mark icon takes you to an interactive on-line help system. This has direct hooks into a variety of frequently used features. If you don't know how to do something, look here first.


Talk (chat)
Talk

The Internet is live, not canned. There is no better reminder of that than the Talk feature. You can "phone" people anywhere on the globe, and if they are connected to the Internet, they will see an instant message that you want to chat. If they accept your call, a window will open on your screen and another on theirs. Anything you type will appear in one part, and anything they type will appear in another.

You can receive calls, too. A message will appear alerting you that, say, bclinton@whitehouse.gov wants to Talk. If you accept, the Talk window will appear.

Conference Calls

You are not limited to two people. If a third (or fourth . . .) person calls, you can add him or her to an ongoing conversation, and your screen will subdivide again.

Beyond the Pipeline

Keep in mind that non-Pipeliners do not have your lovely windowed interface. When they receive a call, it interrupts whatever they may be doing (assuming they are doing something that can be interrupted), and they may not be able to respond immediately. Furthermore, the Unix talk programs around the Internet come in a variety of flavors, some more reliable than others.

Nevertheless, you will soon find that you can carry on live conversations with people in Sweden or Japan. And it's free.


Options (user preferences)
Options: User Preferences

You may customize the appearance of most windows by changing their Fonts (type styles) and Colors from the Options menus of those windows. Pipeline will remember your choices next time. If you change the size or placement of most windows, the program will also remember where you left them.

A variety of other useful options can be changed from the main Options menu. You may never need to touch these, because they come set to useful values. But if you like making adjustments . . .

Password

Change it. You should do this every so often, inconvenient though that may be.

Save it. If you're tired of having to type your password every time you log in, check this option. The software will remember your password from session to session. This is not without risks! Keep in mind that anyone who starts up the software on your computer will be able to get your password. So if you work in an office, or don't trust your spouse and children, we advise you not to use this option.

Pipeline Windows

Show floating window list. Problem: maybe you have lots of windows scattered all about your screen, and you need to navigate quickly among them. Solution: use this option to display a little list of all you windows. This list floats above everything else. You can click on any window name, and you will go directly to that window.

Minimize all windows together. If this is checked, then when you minimize the main Pipeline window (turn it into an icon at the bottom of your screen) everything else will minimize with it. Another anti-clutter device. On the other hand, if you like complete control over what is minimized and what is not, then just leave this option unchecked.

News

How many entries at most. When the Pipeline sends the new headings for all the articles in a news group, is there a maximum number you would like sent each time? A small number will keep you from seeing everything in a large or very busy group. A large number can take a while (several minutes or more) for retrieving the data. (Our suggested value is 100.)

Organization name. This is the identifiying name attached to your news postings, so that readers can see where you're from. Our suggestion is "The Pipeline." However, if you work for, say, the National Security Agency, you may wish to use that instead.

Pathways into the Internet

How many open lists at once. If you burrow deeper and deeper, clicking on list after list, your screen can get cluttered. If this bothers you, use a smaller number here. If you use 1, you'll only see one list at a time. (The least recently used list closes when you open a new one. You can always back up and see it again, even if it has vanished, by typing U or B.) Our suggested value is 4.

How many list items at most. Every so often you'll run into a list that doesn't have a nice, friendly number of items. If it has hundreds, it can take a long time to retrieve. Set this item to a low value, and you won't wait for them all (but then again, you won't get them all.) Our suggested value: 40.

Download Directory

What directory would you like files to arrive in? Our suggestion: \pipeline\user\username\download.

Word Processor

When you receive a very big text file, our little text window cannot display it. We toss it over to your word processor instead. By default we use Write, which every Windows user has. If you have a different favorite, enter it here.

Font for Printing

This is where you change the typeface and point size used when you print something.

Dial Options

Mail Options


Today (weather and bulletins)
Today

This is where we keep local weather, important breaking news and sport scores, and Pipeline bulletins that are not quite crucial enough for us to force them on you.

The icon, when you are connected, shows the state of current short-term forecast for the New York City area: fair, clouds, rain, or snow. If the National Weather Service happens to change its mind while you are on line, you will see the icon change, too.


Files (search the Internet)
Files ("FTP" and "Archie")

This feature lets you find all kinds of files from all across the Internet. Files may be computer programs for your PC, or interesting texts of all sorts, or pictures, or just about anything else you can imagine.

If you happen to know exactly where you want to get a file from, you can enter the site address. When you press Enter, you'll see a directory list. You can then browse subdirectories by clicking on them, or choose files by clicking on them. They will be sent directly to your computer and will be stored in your download directory.

Or if you happen to know exactly what the name of the file is, you can enter that, too, and when you press Enter, you'll get the file directly to your computer. This transfer is known as FTP.

But maybe you just have a filename in mind, or even an approximate file name. We will search the Internet for you. Enter a full or partial name, leaving the site blank, and a search will begin. When it is complete, a list will appear, showing files stored in archives anywhere in the world that match your query. This search is known as Archie,

How Archie Works (Approximately)

Several computer centers on the Internet (and the Pipeline will soon be one of them) maintain Archie servers: systems that regularly poll computers around the network for lists and descriptions of their publicly available files. It is a complicated business, because there are millions of them, always changing.

Your search request is sent to one of these servers for processing. Sometimes the results can be instantaneous; at other times there can be delays, depending on the complexity of your search and the amount of traffic on the Internet. This is probably a good place to repeat . . .

A Gentle Warning

Advanced Features

You may make your search case-sensitive or not. And you may search either for exact matches or partial matches. Check the appropriate boxes depending on your preference.

You may limit the number of matching files that will be returned. A smaller number will speed up the process.

You may choose the computer center that will process your search. Normally we do this for you, making a judgment about which Archie server is likeliest to produce a quick and comprehensive result. But if you are having trouble connecting, or want to try a different site, you may choose one from this list.


Connect to Other Services
Connect Anywhere

An ever-expanding number of resources and services can be reached directly from the Pipeline across the Internet. You establish a Telnet connection, and it is as if you were sitting at someone else's computer.

If you know the address of the remote computer, you may choose the Connect Anywhere item from the main Services menu. Some services are free; others require you to have an account.

Many Telnet connections are also available through Pathways into the Internet. They are marked with a little telephone icon. Often it is necessary to log in with a certain user name, and sometimes a password is required. Wherever we can, we tell you what these are.


Find someone

This is a command available on the main Services menu. It uses one of the several methods available for finding someone in the vast, tangled electronic space of the Internet: it searches a huge database of Usenet news messages.

There are other methods available, too:

As many Internet authorities have pointed out, the best method may be to pick up the old telephone and call. Many hours have been wasted because people were too embarrassed or too interested in exploring to avail themselves of this expedient. Of course, you may truly not know . . .

A procedure known as Whois searches a database of companies, organizations, and individuals with registered Internet addresses. You can find this in Pathways into the Internet, in the Internet Tools category.

There are a growing number of online directories of many different kinds. If your missing person is affiliated with a university or other large organization, it's likely that you can find one of these. Netfind is the name of another, occasionally useful method, and many experimental directories are under development. All these tools are available through the Internet category of Pathways.


How To's: examples
How Do I . . . ?

Now that you're a Pipeliner, what can you do? And how? Here are some random examples to help you get started.

How do I find a discussion forum (news group) on, say, health?

How do I . . .	Under Pathways, explore . . .

  get into the Library of Congress?	Government

  look up News in the Oxford English Dictionary?	Reference
  find lyrics to "Satisfaction"?	Arts and Leisure
  look up the Zip code for Kalamazoo?	Reference
  buy books?	Shopping
  view the latest electronic art projects?	Arts and Leisure
  check today's earthquake reports	Weather

  . . . White House press releases	Government

  . . . Nielsen TV ratings	Arts and Leisure

More about Pathways into the Internet

And don't forget to search with Veronica

Let's say I've explored for a while and come upon something wonderful. How will I be able to find it again? Answer: If you find a resource you will want to use again, you may select Bookmarks! from the menu to add it to your permanent Bookmark list.

Find someone's email address?

Connect to the Pipeline from a site far away?

Join mailing lists?

Get more How To help on line?


Pink Slip
Pink Slip™

A note about communications behind the scenes:

Pipeline for Windows stands out among online interfaces with its ability to transparently multitask many different windows (sessions, in effect). We have implemented our own proprietary packet-transfer protocol, invented by Uday Ivatury. It is called Pink Slip™, and it intelligently manages multiple data streams over an ordinary modem connection.

For the user, the process is transparent: you never see or know about Pink Slip. But it is always working behind the scenes. When you are downloading a large file, for example, Pink Slip automatically adjusts the speed of the transfer [image] the priority given to individual packets [image] depending on what else you are doing. If the user is reading or replying to mail or News, the background transfer is fast. If new mail arrives, or the user opens a new window and begins playing a game, those data streams take priority and push the file transfer into the background.


Credits

Pipeline™ for Windows was created and programmed by Uday Ivatury and James Gleick of the Pipeline Network Inc.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of our technical associates and beta testers, including:

Leland Woodbury	Andrew Schlein
Susan diSesa	Mary McGuire

Richard Meislin	Clay Irving
Paul Dahlman	Guy Gallo
Peter Gleick	Judy Goulding
Gordy Thompson	David Feldman
Amir Rosenblatt	Kim Scheinberg

. . . none of whom, unfortunately, can be held responsible for the program's remaining flaws.

Vendors of software tools used in the creation of this product include Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Corporation (Visual Basic), MicroHelp (VBTools and Gizmos), Sheridan Software Systems (3D-Widgets), Crescent Software (PDQComm), and Firas Bushnaq (Visual Help).


alt

Alternative, even less mainstream groups


Archie

An Internet-wide file-finding service


binary files

Files such as programs or pictures that contain special nontext characters. If you're in doubt, the Windows Notepad program will either display gibberish or notify you when you try to read a binary file.


Bookmark

A resource that you add to Pipeline's main menu so that you can find it again with a single step.


case-sensitive

Whether you type upper- or lower-case letters matters: "bclinton" does not match "BClinton"


CC

A person or people who will receive copies of your letter. (Short for carbon copy, a term derived from a form of pre-electronic technology.)


ClariNews

A commercial news service providing an active feed from the United Press International news wires.


Clipboard

Microsoft's cute name for the place in memory it stores information you Cut or Copy. To insert this information somewhere else, you Paste.


com

commercial


comm port

The link between your modem and your computer. You probably have two or four of these.


comp

Computers and computing


download directory

Where files are saved after you retrieve them. Usually the directory called "pipeline\user\bclinton\download" (if you are bclinton).


edu

educational


feedback

Send mail to staff@pipeline.com.


full name

Your, well, full name: "Hillary Rodham Clinton" or whatever you want to use.


Gopherspace

The whole electronic universe that you can reach through Gopher (and search with Veronica).


icons

little pictures


In Town

Pipeline and NY (New York) news groups


Inbox

Your most important mail folder: the one that opens automatically when you start Pipeline, and the one that your mail arrives in.


modem

A device that lets your computer send and receive data over a telephone line.


net

network


news

The network (Usenet) news system


newsgroup

A discussion forum, conducted all across the global Internet, on any of more than 4,000 topics.


org

organization


other

More esoteric groups, including hundreds of regional groups, from ba (Bay Area) to fi (Finland), and specialized computing groups.


partial matches

If you search for "bclin" you will find "bclinton"


password

Six to eight characters serving as your key to our lock.


paste

Edit/Paste on the menu, Shift-Insert or Ctrl-V from the keyboard


Pink Slip

The Pipeline's proprietary protocol for intelligently multitasking two-way streams of data over telephone lines.


President

bclinton@whitehouse.gov


rec

Recreation, games, the arts


sci

Science, engineering, mathematics


soc

Societal and political groups


status bar

The bar at the bottom of the main Pipeline window and most other windows. It displays a few words about what's happening or what you can do.


Subject

A few words describing what your letter is about. This will help the recipient decide whether to read it (unless your name is enough).


talk

debate and argumentation


Telnet

A standard method of connecting to a distant computer.


Unix

The computer operating system that, in its many hydra-headed forms, dominates the Internet (except at the Pipeline).


user name

A single word of 2 to 8 letters that uniquely identifies you on the Pipeline. It is usually shown as all lower case, because case doesn't matter. Some people like to use their first initial and last name: "bclinton."


uuencode

A standard way of converting binary (8-bit) data into ascii text (7-bit) so that it can safely be handled by Internet mail programs.


Veronica

A service that searches most of the electronic universe, accessible from the main Services menu.