Copyright: Copyright © 1995 Galacticomm, Inc.
Citation: Copyright © 1995 Galacticomm, Inc.  All rights reserved.


Sign-up

In order to log onto an online service and use its resources, you must first sign up.

If you are already signed up (have a User-ID and password) on this Worldgroup service, but reach this window anyway, do not sign up again.  Exit this window, return to the WGM window, highlight the icon for this Worldgroup service, press Alt+Enter, uncheck the box labeled Log on as new user, type in your User-ID and password, and click OK.  Then try connecting to this service again.

If you have not yet signed up on this Worldgroup service, please enter your information in this window.  The information you provide during Sign-up will be visible only to the Sysop.  Other users will not have access to it.

Sysops can disable any of the following questions if they feel the information is unnecessary, so you won't always be asked the full list.

Name

Please enter your real, full name.  Again, this field is for internal recordkeeping.  The name by which you will be known to other users is your User-ID.  See below.

Company name

The name of the company you work for, if relevant to your reasons for signing up with this online service.

Street address

An appropriate mailing address.  If this online service is a business which may ship items to you, be sure this address is one which can accept package deliveries from carriers other than the government mail service - that is, not a Post Office Box.

Country

If you leave this field blank, it assumes you live in the same country in which the online service is located.  This can be used for more detailed routing information if necessary (for example:  Saba, Netherlands Antilles).

Voice Phone

For business purposes, it's usually best to provide a daytime number.  For social purposes, an evening number is often more appropriate.

This online service may require a valid telephone number at which you can be reached before giving you access to its services.  Then again, many do not.  If you prefer not to give a number, type several zeroes in this field.  Please don't type in a fake number.

Computer type

From the dropdown list [image], select the nearest match for the type of computer you are using to contact this online service.  Given that you are running WGM, the most likely match is IBM PC or compatible.

Your date of birth

This must be entered in whatever format you've set in the International section of Windows' Control Panel.  For example, 01/22/65.

Your sex

Your gender, male or female.

User-ID

Enter the name, nickname, or "handle" by which you wish to be known to other users on this service.  All e-mail and forum messages you write will display this name in the From: field.  Teleconference will display this name as the source of any comments you contribute.

On some Worldgroups, the User-ID field will be fused with the Name field so that your name must be your User-ID.  On most systems, however, you can set the two fields differently.

Password

Enter a code word which you will use in future to verify that you are who you say you are when you identify yourself by User-ID.  No one apart from you, the software, and the Sysop will be able to see this password.

The characters which you type here will be obscured with ******* so that other persons within view of your screen cannot easily see what you type.

Don't use an obvious word (like "password") or one which might be easily guessed by someone who knows you (mother's maiden name, child's name, etc.).  Don't use something completely random, either, as you're likely to forget it.  A good compromise is to combine two unrelated words (like "twosun") which are easy to remember but don't mean much.

Write down this new password immediately and keep the paper in a secure location.

Once you answer all of these fields, click the OK button.  You will next be asked to verify your choice of password by typing it in a second time.


Password verification

In order to confirm that the password you typed on the main Sign-up window is one which you can easily remember and repeat, the system requires that you correctly enter the password a second time.

As with the first entry, the characters you type here will be obscured with ******* so that other persons within view of your screen cannot easily see what you type.

If you mistype the password, either the first time or during the repeat, consider that you may have the same trouble with this choice of passwords in future.  Perhaps a simpler password is more appropriate.

When you successfully repeat the password and click OK, the Sign-up information will be recorded in the Accounting area.  You can edit/update most of this information after you log on by selecting the icon labeled Account Display/Edit from the Main System Menu.  The User-ID and your birthdate are not editable once they've been entered at Sign-up, however.

The User-ID and password you declare here will also be recorded in the client-side WGM Properties area for the Online Service Item (icon) you use to contact this service.  From now on, when you double-click that icon, WGM will use your User-ID and password to near-instantly identify you to the server and log you on.


Please provide this additional information

This online service may require more information than simply your name, address, and phone number.  As with the first window's questions, the answers you provide here will be seen only by the Sysop and possibly an assistant (CoSysop).

Each question can accept up to 79 characters of answer.  Both alphabetic and numeric characters are acceptable, as are most punctuation marks.

If there are more questions than can be displayed within the window, use the scroll bar to move subsequent questions into view.

When you have answered all of these questions, the OK button will become active (it is dimmed when you first arrive at this window).  Click OK to continue.


Glossary

The following definitions are available:

Bitmap File

C/S (Client/Server) Mode

Client Side

Dumb Terminal

File Transfer Protocol

Metafile

Online, Offline, On Deck

Password

Worldgroup server

Server Side

Sysop

Terminal Mode

User Account

User-ID


Bitmap File

A bitmap is a way to store a graphical image as a rectangular grid of dots (pixels).

  For example, the icon for Windows' Control Panel is a bitmap.

	Here it is again 4 times as large.  Bitmaps don't enlarge very well because the information that is stored within them is only accurate down to the size of a single pixel (dot).  Enlarge a bitmap and you get big dots.

On the other hand, bitmaps work very well when they store information which is not meant to be enlarged, reshaped or otherwise manipulated.  Windows icons are bitmaps (stored as .ico files or embedded in .exe files).  Windows wallpaper designs are bitmaps (.bmp).

The Windows program Paintbrush can manipulate .bmp files.

See also Metafile.


C/S (Client/Server) Mode

Two-sided computing: your PC and the Worldgroup server PC both work to satisfy your requests.  Your PC's processing power is not ignored (as with a terminal mode BBS).  In fact, your PC ends up doing most of the work.  C/S mode minimizes wasted time online by letting you do many tasks on deck.

Client/server means that one program (the client) can ask another program (the server) for assistance.  The two programs often run on separate computers connected by a communications link (a network, the telephone system, etc.).

WGM is a client program running on your PC.

Worldgroup is a server program running on a remote PC.


Client side

Your PC running WGM is the client side of a client/server relationship.  The remote PC running Worldgroup is the server side of the relationship.  The term client side includes:

1) any programs which run on your PC

2) any data, documents, or other files which are stored on your PC

The client side can do many tasks itself, and calls on the server side for tasks it cannot do (exchanging messages with other clients, looking up centralized information, etc.).


Dumb Terminal

	A device which has a keyboard, a monitor, possibly a mouse, but has no ability to process data by itself.  A dumb terminal has to be connected to a computer in order to do anything.
Old-style user-side modem programs are known as terminal programs because they make your PC mimic a dumb terminal (thereby wasting your PC's processing power).


File Transfer Protocol

A language for exchanging files between two computers and confirming that what arrives is the same as what was sent.  Common protocols for terminal-mode transfers include ZMODEM, XMODEM, YMODEM-Batch, and Kermit.

WGM in C/S mode uses its own information transfer protocol, GCSP, which uses Dynapaks to exchange all forms of data including files.


Metafile

A metafile is a way to store a graphical image as a collection of shapes, angles, and relative distances.

  For example, this drawing of a telephone plug is a metafile.

	Here it is again 4 times as large.  Note that you can see more detail in the enlarged version.  Stretched large or small, a metafile is recalculated to provide the most accurate image possible.

Because PC monitors in use today may be set to any of a dozen different resolutions (so many pixels tall, so many pixels wide), we have used metafiles within WGM's help files wherever possible.  This makes it more likely that graphics will appear properly on your display.

The Windows program Paintbrush cannot manipulate .wmf files.

See also Bitmap File.


Online, Offline, and On Deck
Online

Connected.

Your PC is online whenever it is connected to a Worldgroup server.

Offline

Disconnected.

Your PC is offline whenever it is not connected to a Worldgroup server.

On Deck

Disconnected but able to perform tasks.

Your PC is on deck whenever WGM is running the client-side program (E-mail, File Libraries, etc.) for a Worldgroup service but your PC is not yet connected to the online service.


Password

The private half of your identification, seen only by the software and the Sysop.

A password is the confirmation that you are who your User-ID says you are.  Without passwords, someone else could log on using your User-ID and do things that you would be blamed for.  Keep your password secret.

Avoid obvious, easily guessed, passwords.  Make up something that is not your mother's maiden name, not your job title, in fact not anything related to your work.

Don't use a completely random string of characters, though.  "NE1410S" will be hard to remember.  Instead, an effective middle choice is to run two words together which are easily remembered by you but not easily guessed by others.  "Twosun" for example.


Worldgroup system
Worldgroup server

An online service running Worldgroup server software by Galacticomm, Inc.

Online services running other software, including Galacticomm's The Major BBS (Worldgroup's predecessor), are not servers in the client/server sense.  WGM drops back to terminal mode in order to communicate with them.


Server side

The remote PC running Worldgroup is the server side of a client/server relationship.  Your PC is the client side of the relationship.  The term server side includes:

1) any programs which run on the Worldgroup server PC

2) any data, documents, or other files which are stored on the Worldgroup server PC

The server side exists solely to do tasks which the client side cannot do itself (exchanging messages with other clients, looking up centralized information, etc.).


Sysop

A System Operator, or Sysop, is the manager of an online service.


Terminal Mode

One-sided computing: the software running on the remote computer insists on doing all of the work, so your own PC might as well be a "dumb terminal."  This mindset made sense when computing power was prohibitively expensive and terminals were cheap.  Today, though, your PC may well be more powerful than the PC running the online service you call.  Even if it isn't, your PC is closer to you than the service's PC.  It can do things without delay, if the software at both ends permits.  Client/server mode permits this.  Terminal mode does not.

WGM falls back from C/S mode to terminal mode in order to communicate with BBSes and other non-Worldgroup online services.


User Account

A list of information including your full name, your mailing address, your telephone number, etc.  In a for-profit online service, the user account may include your credit card number or other method of payment.

User account information is private, seen only by you and by the Sysop.

Your user account is identified by your User-ID and password.


User-ID

The public half of your identification, seen by the software and by other users.

A User-ID is a string of 3 to 29 characters (although some systems may limit you to fewer than 29).  On business systems, your User-ID is often your full name.  On social systems, it is often a nickname or "handle."  In some situations, a User-ID may be assigned to you.  In other situations, the choice is yours.

Your User-ID is verified by the password you associate with it.


   I never metafile I didn't like

      (Stryker said I could do it! --Marc)