  Account Reconfiguration
  -----------------------
    You can reconfigure your account for a number of parameters using the
 dot commands.  In this there lies an unfortunate paradox -- if you are
 a true novice, you probably don't know what a "dot" command is, because
 it's an advanced topic.  However, fear not
 and press on, for "advanced" is merely a relative term.

    We'll address the issue of reconfiguration in three sections: terminal
 configuration, system usage configuration, and miscellaneous.

    Generally speaking, to change or set any of the following options, the
 generic format of the command you'll use is

     <.E>nter <C>onfiguration <OPTION>

    (If you are not familiar with "dot" commands, the above means you type
 the period ["."], followed by an 'E', a 'C', and then the letter of the
 option you wish to play with.)

  TERMINAL CONFIGURATION:
    ^nodetitle needs to know two (2) things about you and your terminal in
 order to make system usage as pleasurable as possible.  You told us about
 them when you logged in (presumably, or perhaps the sysop did when
 s/he created your account), but you may want to change the settings
 anyways.

    Additionally, you can set three (3) more values related to your terminal
 to tune your usage of ^variantname.  These three, explained below, are
 Half-Duplex mode, Nulls, and character Delay.

    Here are the options:

  <W>idth of screen.  This is the width of your screen in columns (not inches!).
 When you request this option the system will prompt for a screen width.  If you
 find after using this option that you are occasionally getting anomalous blank
 lines, and the last character of the line above the blank line seems to be in
 the 80th column, you are using flawed terminal software which does not
 understand when line wrap is supposed to occur (don't feel bad, this is a very
 common problem).  If this is happening, try setting the Width to one less than
 the width of your screen.  For instance, .ECW 79 is a very common setting.

  <L>inefeeds.  This is a simple toggle which alternately turns on and off your
 need for ^variantname to transmit a Linefeed after it sends a Carriage Return
 (the standard End Of Line indicator in the BBS world).  If you find that either
 each line writes over the one before it, or EVERY line is followed by one
 or more blank lines, then use this, .ECL, option.

  <D>elay.  With the advent of cheap, fast modems, it's become very common for
 even the most destitute of users to have very fast modems.  While this is very
 useful for downloading files and messages, you may want to slow the output
 while you're reading messages online.  To this end ^variantname provides the
 <D>elay parameter.  It tells ^variantname how long to pause after each
 character is spat out to the modem when you're reading messages or text files
 in ASCII
 mode (this option has no effect when you're downloading messages or files using
 XMODEM or any other protocol).  The units of delay are milliseconds.  Feel free
 to experiment with this value to get it to a value you feel comfortable reading
 at.

  <N>ulls.  These are used on very old terminals which, when given a carriage
 return, actually need some time to move the cursor (or print head) down a
 line and all the way to the left.  A "Null" is a byte who's value is binary
 0 (not ASCII "0"), and its common meaning is "no information"; it acts as a
 time waster while your terminal moves the cursor to the left and down a line.
 You only need to use this if you seem to lose several characters from the
 beginning of each line.

  <H>alf-duplex mode.  This is useful for the rare user who's terminal generates
 its own echo when the user types.  Nearly no one uses this option (so don't
 worry if you don't understand), but sometimes PCPursuit people find it very
 useful as a way to get away from the inherent jerkiness of the service.

  System Usage Configuration:
    These options control how you use the system and what you see.

  <E>xpert.  This controls how many hints and prompts you'll see.  It's just
 a toggle, so when you're tired of being a novice (if you still are), just
 type .ECE.

  <F>loor mode.  This tells the system if you want the additional structure of
 floors added onto the basic structure of rooms.  There's a help file that
 already covers this (.Help FLOORS, or find it in the Help System), so please
 consult that file for more information.

  <O>ld message on New toggle.  This tells the system if you want to see
 the last Old message in a given room first when you request <N>ew messages.
 This is useful as a "memory jogger" of what was happening in the room last
 time you were here.

  <T>ime of messages.  Do you want to see the time each message was generated,
 or are you content with just the date?  .ECT lets you change back and forth.

  <M>ail Forwarding.  You may forward mail sent to this account to another
 account on ^nodetitle (to forward your mail to another system see below)
 using this command.
 This includes mail received from another system for this account.  The one
 exception is mail sent by the Sysop to Citadel, in which case all accounts
 will receive the mail and forwarding is not necessary.

  <P>rompt.  This controls whether the room name is printed before the words
 'entry cmd: ' (the message entry prompt) as a hint where you are entering
 a message.  This prompt will remind you where you are in case you've accidentally
 changed rooms when entering a message (this happens occasionally).

  Miscellaneous options:
    These options are just don't fit anywhere else.

  <A>ddress.  See .Help FORWARD for detailed information; essentially, you
 can tell ^nodetitle to Forward your local Mail> to another system if you don't
 plan to be on this system very often, but expect to receive Mail from local
 users.

  <B>iography.  See .Help BIO.  Basically, this lets you enter a short biography
 of yourself for other folk to read.  Biographies are accessed using <M>eet
 User.

  <C>omplete reconfigure.  This lets you completely reconfigure your account.

    Also, .Enter Configuration ? and .Enter Configuration <CR> will print a
 menu and a summary of your current configuration.

  <Z>Old-style Read Extended.  This option lets you control the behavior of
 .Read Extended-Directory in directory rooms.  Give it a try, just hit .ECZ
 and then do a .RE in a directory room.  Hit .ECZ again and another .RE will
 let you see the difference.

 PASSWORD
    Use the .Enter Password command to change your password.  If you try to
 change your password more than once during a login session, you will be forced
 to wait for half a minute as an anti-password-hacking measure.


  %FORWARD More information on C86Net Mail, especially for .ECA.
  %BIO User biographies on ^variantname.
  %COMMANDS Back to the commands help menu.
  %HELPOPT Get a list of all help files in the system.
  %MAINHELP First level of help system.

